What you pretend to be: Johanna Mason
by CapitolEffie
Summary: It's the 71st annual Hunger Games and Johanna Mason has been chosen to compete. To survive she must become a different person, a person she didn't know she was capable of being. This story maps the transition of Johanna the young girl to Johanna the killer.
1. District 7: Before

**Rated T cause its the Hunger Games don't get too excited I don't think this is going to be a romance (although I could be wrong). All characters obvs belong to Suzanne Colins not me. Enjoy!**

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Johanna stood at the edge of the forest hidden in the thick trees surveying the river. She'd been here for two hours now watching the sky gradually lighten, still and silent becoming one with the forest. Then she spotted it, the wet brown fur of the beaver sliding out of the water. Before it had properly surfaced Johanna's axe was buried in its neck. She laughed emerging from the forest to claim her kill pulling the axe out, cleaning it, and hauling the carcass onto her back. Jogging at a steady pace, she rapidly dissected the pros and cons of the beaver. Fatty, so not much meat but the pelt what also fetch her a good price. Not bad for a mornings work. Normally she'd have continued up river into the deeper forest, killing squirrels and gathering berries and mushrooms. But this morning she had to hurry home so she could change out of her comfortable brown leather trousers and thick weave shirt in exchange for the same uncomfortable green dress she'd worn for her last five reapings. It hadn't been necessary to adjust it much, the seventeen year old Johanna was small for her age from malnourishment. Still she had it better than most people did in her district with herself, a nineteen year old and a sixteen-year-old brother all hunting and working in the forest. She also had a mother who was toughened by a life of hard work but still held down a job in paper production and took in mending from neighbours.

Johanna had been jogging steadily towards her house through the forest through by a route she had followed many times before, buried in her thoughts, when she suddenly felt a prickle on the back of her neck. She slowed her pace slightly looking about her but all could she see was green forest. Then out of nowhere, she almost ran into a boy with dark brown hair, the same eyes as Johanna and a cocky smile on his face. He held a couple of squirrels in his hand.

"If I was a peacekeeper you'd have been arrested by now." He chided Johanna grabbing the beaver and inspecting it. "Not bad."

"No, if you were a peacekeeper I would have buried this axe in your head by now." She grinned wickedly at her older brother, Olen.

"Ah but then you would have had body to deal with, what then?"

"I would have dragged the body to the river and let the tide take it away, no one misses a peacekeeper."

"Very good." He smiled and hauled her beaver onto his back starting to walk back to their cabin.

"Hey," She hurried after him. "You're not going to claim that you caught that are you?"

"Lets just say." He paused before taking off at a sprint and yelling over his shoulder. "Whoever gets home first can tell mum they caught it."

She growled annoyed but amused and ran after Olen. Her strong legs pounded into the forest floor and her blonde hair flew out behind her. As the clean filled her lungs she felt totally free.

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"Mum," Johanna gasped leaning against the doorframe and breathing heavily. Her mother sat at the centre of the small kitchen at the rough wooden table her father had made before he was crushed under a tree that fell on him at work. A bag of mending was on the floor beside her but her pitted and scarred hands were running over the carcass of the beaver on the kitchen table. Her brother sat beside her and looked up to give Johanna a triumphant look.

"Johanna." Her mother did not look up from the beaver, still assessing the merits of the catch. "Your brother said he caught this by the river."

Johanna frowned annoyed but then she continued. "I do not believe him. You're the only person in this house who has the patience to catch it."

Johanna tried not to look too pleased and gave her brother a superior look but he smirked as if to say, maybe not this time but next time. Praise from their mother was hard earned but when they deserved it, she would let them know.

"Come on then beaver hunter," Onen joked. There were no hard feelings; her relationship with both of her brothers was this way: competitive with each other but protective against anyone who wasn't family. Johanna followed her brother up the creaking stairs at the side the kitchen. The upper floor was warped so the wood seemed to bend into waves like a river. Her brother had to stoop as he stepped into the room he shared with his other brother, Ash. But Johanna was small enough to enter her own room without ducking and once inside she started to strip of her layers of hunting clothes.

As the only girl she had her own bedroom which, however small, she never failed to appreciate. Johanna liked to be on her own, either in the forest or in her room. Her family provided her with all the human contact she required. For some reason she'd never clicked with any of the girls her age and never had a desire to. Maybe it was her brothers that led her to reject female company, or maybe it was the lack of common interests. Johanna didn't care to discuss boys, what dress they would get if they could afford it or which berries were best for making a lip stain. She'd honestly much rather be hunting for her family to make their lives better rather than sitting around dreaming about things they couldn't have.

Johanna slipped on a worn green dress and did up the line of buttons down the front, frowning a bit at the place where the hem had come undone. She looked at her reflection in the small cracked mirror that leant against the floor. She ran her blonde hair through her fingers trying to get it to lay flat and then held up the mirror to try to see the back of her head. A snicker from the doorway almost made her drop the mirror and she turned to see Ash laughing at this unusual display of girliness.

"Shut up." She growled at him as she pushed past him and hurried downstairs. It was almost time for the reaping. She couldn't help but feel a flicker of fear in her stomach and try as she might she couldn't stand still. This ordeal was almost over she reminded herself, one more year and I'm out. Two more years and her younger brother was out. But still, the cumulative system and the tessera she took ever year meant the odds were stacked high against her.

"Come here." Her mother had put down her mending with a sigh and gestured for Johanna to come sit down next to her. Johanna watched as her mother searched her sewing basket for a green thread and began to repair the hem on her dress. Johanna's leg was shaking involuntarily and her mother gave her a look in until she stopped.

"Johanna Mason-" But Johanna cut her off.

"I know what you're going to say, and it probably won't be me. I'm not scared." She held her chin up not wanting to appear weak. But it was as if her mother had read her thoughts.

"Fear is not a weakness. You'd be stupid if you weren't scared, and you're not stupid. What I was going to say was if you do get picked, and it might happen, you have a better chance than most."

Johanna stared at her wanting to believe it.

"You're a hunter, you know how to survive using the resources around you and you're clever." Her mother's eyes seemed to bore into her as she finished. "You will also be a killer if that's what it takes to get back to your family."

Johanna stared at her as she went back to sewing her hem up, thinking. Could I be a killer? The immediate reaction was no, but as she thought about her brothers, her mother and her forest she knew she would do whatever it took to return to them if she had to.

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**I have got a bit more written but if no one reviews it then I'll know not to bother. This is my first ever fanfiction story so be nice! But on the other hand constructive criticism would be very welcome as that will help me in my future writing. If anyone has any ideas about where they want this to go I'm open to suggestions, assuming anyone actually wants me to keep going :P**


	2. Capitol: Training

"Johanna Mason" The cold man's voice had distorted her name with his Capitol accent putting an odd focus on the 'a' of Johanna. Her own name was still ringing in her ears two hours later as she sat on the train. She was shivering slightly in her thin dress but otherwise sat completely still. In contrast with her nerves earlier, she felt oddly calm. She understood she was going enter into a deadly arena to fight with the death with children, and yet it did not seem real at all. She remembered her mother's words in the justice building and they helped her find the strength to sit here quietly and not start smashing up the furniture in her carriage.

"Be brave Johanna and survive." Then she'd just held her in her arms silently until the peacekeepers took her away.

Her brothers had come to say goodbye as well. Ash had been almost incoherent with sobs but Onen had gripped her shoulders and tried to tell her everything he knew that might help her in the Games. Some of his words had stuck in her mind.

"They won't expect you to be any good. You're from district seven and you're so small." His voice was slightly tight as if he was holding back tears. "If you hide your strength you won't be a target."

Johanna sat gripping her hands together counting the different types of wood she could see in the carriage. She wondered idly how many trees had gone into this carriage alone. The wood was probably from district seven, a piece of home coming with her. Suddenly tears choked her. She tried to hold them back, be brave, when she realised she could use them to her advantage. Appear weak, the tearful child just like her brother had said. She would not give into her fate.

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Johanna was sitting unobtrusively at the edible parts station scanning the training room. It was her second day of training and things were going to plan; she'd made no enemy's and shown no particular skill. The trainer was giving her a lecture about identifying poisonous leaves and Johanna was tuning her out, she could do that in her sleep. Instead, she used the opportunity to watch her fellow tributes. Her district partner, Betch, was a few stations to the left trying his hand at spear throwing; he wasn't doing well.

Johanna had arrived at the Capitol with red eyes and she'd cultivated a permanent look of fear. Appearing weak, after a lifetime of being strong and proud had its challenges but a certain amount of enjoyment could be gained from tricking everyone around her. She was even acting in front of her mentor who seemed to have no strategy of her own for Johanna to implement. Her mentor was a useless woman named Ivy who seemed to have lost most of her brain cells to some kind of drug popular here in the Capitol. It wasn't strictly necessary, hiding her skills from her mentor, but pretending to everyone made it easier to keep up the act. The sacrifice of sponsors was no doubt a huge price to pay for her strategy, but Johanna liked the idea that only she and she alone would control whether she lived or died and not some rich and foolish Capitol citizen who took a fancy to help her.

No one at all had been much help to Johanna so far, her stylist was beyond awful. For the tribute parade, she'd been dressed in a God awful tree costume that Johanna tore of as soon as she was back in her room. Still it all worked with her plan, no one noticed her except probably to pity her. It had been the first time she'd seen her fellow tributes. Most of them were as small and underfed as Johanna, if not more so, she noticed with a pang a little boy from district eight who must have been the youngest competitor here. The Career's of course looked as physically intimidating as they nearly always did, looking particularly superior in the only decent costumes in the parade. But only physical aptitude could be guessed at the parade, there may well be surprises among the tributes, as Johanna knew she was one herself.

The Career's were obviously the biggest threat, no surprises there. At training Johanna kept her eye on them, noting there different strengths. They consisted of a tall shaven headed, eighteen year old boy from district 1 who was at the knives station with his district partner, a hard faced girl with blonde hair scraped back and a good aim with a knife. District 2 were less menacing, the boy had less muscle definition than district one's boy but handled their signature weapon, the sword, with lethal ability. The girl, she thought she was called Brianna, appeared deceptively small and Johanna wondered how she was part of the careers. Then she saw her pick up a bow and shoot an arrow directly at the centre of the target. District 4 were both very muscular, Johanna watched them taking it in turns at the weight lifting station.

The trainer had stopped talking to Johanna and held out a selection of leaves for her to point out the poisonous ones. Absent mindedly, Johanna picked out the poisonous ones quickly just as the girl from district four looked over. She met her eyes for a millisecond then looked away but she could tell the girl had seen her momentary slip up and felt her cold eyes watching her. Johanna quickly left the edible plants station and chose a station she could publicly fail at. She picked up a bow, fitted an arrow in the notch, and let it fly. It barely even went a metre and the district four girl turned away laughing and Johanna breathed again.

Someone laughed closer at hand. Johanna turned quickly to see Brianna stalking back over the training room floor to her preferred station. She snatched the bow from Johanna's hands with a sneer.

"I don't think you should be allowed to handle a bow." Johanna would have liked nothing better than to punch the sarcastic smile of her mean face. Better still prove her wrong, she was no archery champion but she could definitely do better. But instead, she swallowed her temper, faked a whimper and tried to appear intimidated. It seemed to have worked because the girl was smiling wider.

"Run along, blondie." Johanna did as she was told smiling inwardly. That was at least one person she would be happy to kill when the time came. Then she suddenly realised what she'd just thought and felt faintly sick. Was she becoming a psychopath before the Games even started? She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, being cold blooded could surely only help her now.

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It was lunch on the third day of training and the career's were gathered together in a noisy group at one end of the table. They truly were intimidating this year with three strong districts of trained killers. The other tributes mostly sat on their own and Johanna imitated their behaviour focusing on the food, much better than anything she'd ever tasted before, and kept her ears open. As she picked at her food she caught the career's conversation.

"Krystal," Johanna winced internally, only district 1 could think of such sickening names for their little murderers. The girl named Krystal's unfortunate appearance was only exaggerated by her comically girly name; her face looked hard and masculine, her hair was a yellow blonde Johanna was sure wasn't her natural shade. "Did you see those dreadful costumes district twelve had?"

"Yes, miners again, the little hats! Do they think they can dig themselves out of the arena?" Laughed Krystal derisively picking up easily on the insulting pattern of her conversation with Brianna. They continued dissecting the tribute parade costumes and then moved on to laughing at their various failures in training. They touched briefly on Johanna, calling her blondie, and discussing her poor efforts with the bow. Nothing they were saying was helpful to Johanna, just Career arrogance. The boys and district four girl were quieter but kept up a steady stream of remarks relating to their preferred fighting style and weaponry. Johanna found out District one boy, Beau, relied on his strength and used a long knife that he threw at his victims. From what she could gather district four boy used a spear and the girl didn't mention a particular weapon but Johanna could only imagine her brute strength could win her a fight.

Johanna switched her focus from the Career's and tried to gain information about her other opponents whom she knew barely anything about. The girl from district 11 looked about the same age as Johanna and she was tall, if skinny. Johanna wondered if she had any skills that might be a threat to her. But she sat quietly eating by herself, her dark eyes fixed on the plate in front of her. Districts 3 were talking quietly to each other to Johanna's left. The girl seemed to be upset whilst the boy was trying to comfort her, neither of them looked particularly threatening, no doubt she was worried about her chances. She caught some of their conversation.

"...you were top of our class back home, you've got nothing to worry about"

"How are electronics going to help me here?"

"You can make traps, I've seen it on previous games, if you show the game makers what you can do they'll provide the materials you need."

Johanna stiffened. The district 3 pair may seem quite the non-threatening alliance but she knew nothing about electricity. They could easily trap Johanna, and everyone else in the arena for that matter, because no one knew the signs of an electrical trap. She'd seen it on a previous games too, a boy with glasses and dark hair, had killed off most of the arena using electronic traps. Johanna had to watch out for those two.

Johanna finished her food and hurried to take her tray back keeping her eyes down and bumped directly into district four boy. She almost fell backwards but regained her balance at the last minute. The other Career's had noticed and turned round to laugh at her.

"Watch where you're going, blondie" District 4 glared down at her, flexing his grotesquely large arm muscles. Damn it, Johanna was drawing way too much attention to herself. She decided to turn it to her advantage.

"S- sorry" She stuttered pathetically making her brown eyes go wide with fear. District 4 grinned with amusement so she decided to take it one step further and made her eyes fill up with tears. She let tears begin to roll down her cheeks pathetically. District 4 looked at her for a minute and she wondered if she'd laid it on to thick. Then his Gorilla like face split into laughter as he, and most of the lunchroom, laughed at the pathetic little girl from District 7. Johanna practically ran from the room her feet pounding in to the soft carpet that muffled her footsteps. She stopped to lean her head back against the cold wall a few corridors' away, smiling to herself. Perfect, now every one of her fellow tributes thought she was an easy kill, she would be no one's target or first priority. How surprised they would be when she proved them wrong.

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**Please review it if you liked it :)**


	3. The Arena: First day

**Thank you lovely reviewers, favouriter's and story alerter's :) I haven't included the interviews or training score's but as Johanna is trying to keep a low profile they are average and therefore not very interesting.**

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Ten...the bright light blinded Johanna as she ascended into the arena.

Nine...she focused in on the weapons and supplies just a few metres away.

Eight...she spotted an axe and her hands were itching to get it but her work up to this point had been pointless if she showed her hand so early.

Seven...the whole arena appeared to be a grassy plain with pale yellow tall grass in every direction into the blue horizon.

Six...no trees.

Five...the tributes around her were all shiny with sweat from heat or fear as they focused on the cornucopia in front of them.

Four... make a decision, uphill or downhill.

Three... water runs down hill.

Two... heat Johanna had never felt before made her sweat out in her vest top and tight stretchy trousers.

One...this really wasn't Johanna's arena.

Run. She darted forward slightly to grab something shiny she'd spotted in the grass and scrambled to pick up a metal water bottle catching several pieces of grass at the same time. Then she ran in earnest, forward past the Cornucopia where she could already hear screams and smell the metallic edge of fresh blood. She didn't even know what was down the hill in front of her as all she could see still was that tall grass she flattened with each foot fall. Then a pain tore through her arm and she stumbled but kept moving. She pulled an arrow, no doubt curtsey of Brianna, out of her arm with a slight whimper but without stopping or turning around. So the Career's had reached the Cornucopia. She heard the air being broken by more arrows but she ran on clutching at her arm as blood seeped out from between her pale fingers. The feel of her own warm blood seeping down her arm was enough to make her want to throw up, but that would mean stopping.

As the slope increased and became rockier, the air was still again. She was out of Brianna's range and no doubt, the girl was far too busy picking of the weaker tributes who had decided to get involved in the bloodthirsty first battle. She slipped on a piece of pale dusty rock and almost fell. Swearing she slackened her pace slightly, glancing around her constantly for other tributes but they were either still at the Cornucopia or had chosen a different direction. The downhill climb was rapidly becoming a dangerous scramble as the grass thinned and was replaced with a pale, dusty surface that had absolutely no grip. Johanna slipped and fell a couple of times before she got used to it. Her adrenaline was making her take this at a faster pace than was really wise. The last time she'd fallen face forward and got up spitting dust. As she used her arms to lift her up her left had almost gave way and there was a red brown stain in the dust were Johanna's blood had dripped down onto the slope. She really needed to find somewhere she could sort out that wound, and she was already feeling slightly dizzy from the heat that pounded through her and the blood loss.

Peering down the hill, she could see it ended soon flattening out into a further grassy plain and her heart leapt as she saw a few sparsely distributed trees. At least Johanna assumed they were trees as they were like nothing she'd ever seen in district 7 there lumpy trunks only a couple of metres high and bent like old men. She continued on her legs feeling strangely separate from her body and her forehead feeling sickly cold, especially in contrast with the rest of her overheating body. The air had started to whirr in her ears and when she blinked she struggled to see again when she opened her eyes. She opened her eyes after a particularly long blink and the landscape seemed stained red. She focused just in time to feel the ground drop away beneath her feet.

She fell dizzyingly through space for a few seconds before landing, luckily for her, on a prickly shrub. She opened her eyes again but weirdly enough it had become easier to see. It was because it was dark. For a millisecond, she'd wondered if she'd been knocked out until nightfall by her fall, and then she felt the cold slightly damp rock under her fingers as she scrambled into a sitting position. She was sitting in the entrance to a large cave. She looked up and saw the shrubs and grass had grown over the hole above her, which she'd fallen through, making the entrance almost invisible. The entrance at ground level was nothing more than a slit that only the smallest child would be able to slide through. Johanna smiled through her haze of sickness. She'd just stumbled across the perfect hide out.

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It was nightfall of the first night in the arena and Johanna had just woken up. Moss she'd found in the cave bound her wound making her feel less sick, and the small spring at the back of the cave provided her with water which made her feel much more in control. She was starting to feel hungry though but hunting at night clearly wasn't the smartest option. She had no doubt the Career's would be searching the arena tonight for any unfortunate tribute to be found. She hoped Brianna at least was dead at the Cornucopia but it seemed unlikely what with her arrows allowing her to pick off her opponents before they were even close enough to touch her. This thought made Johanna realise she hadn't heard any cannon's. After the showdown at the Cornucopia there would have been cannons for all the dead. She must have slept through it. It was now essential she found out who was left in the arena.

As if the Capitol had read her thoughts the blare of the Panem anthem broke the still night. She scrambled up and pushed her head out of the hole in the cave to see the Capitol seal projected in the night sky. District 1 and 2 were still alive, the boy from district 3 was dead, district four were still alive. Damn it, the Career's were intact. It was what Johanna had been expecting though, and at least this way she might be able to break Brianna's neck personally. District 5 were both dead, the little girl had a wide eyed scared expression in her photo that tugged at Johanna's heart strings. The boy from district 6 was dead, Betch was still alive as was Johanna so it was straight to district 8. Both were dead from 8 and the boy Johanna had noticed at the tribute parade turned out to be called Calicon. The faces started to blur then; the girl from 9; both from 10; the boy from 11. Then the slideshow shut off, leaving Johanna's eyes with the final face of the boy from eleven burned into her pupils from looking at a bright light for so long. She slipped back into the cave feeling upset. Why she didn't know; she had a water source and shelter, she was doing quite well really. It just wasn't until this point that it felt real, the possibility of her death coming closer with every breath she took. For all she knew, tomorrow her fellow tributes would be looking at her face in the sky.

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**It's a bit short because originally it was way too long so I split it into this chapter and then the next. That means a speedy update though. Please review it if you liked it :)**


	4. The Arena: Allies

**Thank you to the people who took the time to review it :)**

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Johanna slept uneasily again after the slideshow shut off. She woke once when a cannon sounded, but there was no noise in her part of the arena and her shelter was well hidden. At least it showed the Career's were somewhere else in the arena for now, which could only be a good thing. When she woke up properly it was to dappled sunlight falling on her face through the hole in the cave ceiling. Glancing out of her shelter, she judged it was still very early. It was probably her stomach that had woken her as she found she was suddenly starving. She realised she hadn't eaten for roughly 24 hours. Her injury had made her feel too strange and sick to be hungry, but now she was healing she needed food. When changing the moss on her wound she saw the blood had clotted so that was a good sign, but still she needed to prevent infection. She drunk some of the water from her water bottle, hoping against hope it was clean because she had no way treat it. She listened intently before emerging from the cave but all seemed silent and still.

Being weapon-less made her feel very vulnerable and she stepped out onto the plain below her cautiously, twitching at every rustle of grass. But the plain was so open she was sure she would be able to spot any other tributes miles off. She relaxed a bit and crouched low in the grass, her blonde hair camouflaged her perfectly, maybe this arena wasn't so bad after all. Her eyes were the only thing that moved as she scanned the ground, squinting in the unforgiving light, for any sign of movement. The grass might have seemed empty earlier but close up Johanna could see hundreds of insects and movement of what she hoped were small animals she could hunt. She spotted rabbit droppings and smiled, creeping low towards the evidence and following slight dents in the grass that told her it been this way. Then she spotted it, a bit larger than rabbits back home with long ears and one paw in the air as if considering whether to run. Then Johanna threw herself on top of it, hands around its neck as she held it still to stamp on its head, hard. It stopped struggling, dead. It was a cruel way to kill it but with no weapon, it had been her only option. She pulled it onto her back with her right hand, her left still felt weak. Her concentration on the rabbit had consumed her and she only became aware of the boys presence when he spoke.

"Are you going to eat the whole rabbit? Or will you share?"

Johanna wheeled around not even hesitating as she dropped the rabbit and launched herself at the boy knocking him to the ground in much the same way she had the rabbit. Her hands were round his neck ready to squeeze the life out of the small dark haired child when with a sinking heart she recognised the face.

"Hey! Johanna, what the hell? Let me go! I wasn't attacking you, I want to be allies!" said Betch from district 7.

"I'm not doing allies!" Johanna spat out tightening her hold on his neck. It would be best to do it now, before he could talk to her, remind her that they were from the same district, that he was a person.

"It could be good for both of us! I got some sunscreen, rope and a knife from the Cornucopia!"

"You don't want me as an ally, I'm useless!" Johanna tried half heartedly, knowing she'd already showed her hand, all the more reason to kill him quickly. But it was just so difficult!

"I just watched you take down a rabbit with your bare hands. Plus I know all that crap at training was just an act, I know your family remember! We may not have been friends but everyone knows your no weakling in district 7."

Johanna sighed as she looked into his scared dark eyes that reminded her of her younger brother. She knew she wasn't going to kill him now, but no way was she having him as an ally. For all his supplies he was no fighter and allies were not part of Johanna's game plan. She got off him and he scrambled to his feet.

"Run!" She screamed at him. He stood still shocked for a second. "Run or I'll kill you and you clearly know I can!"

This time he took off into the grass a small backpack bouncing on his back, glancing back once with hurt eyes. Johanna felt horrible. By himself, he wouldn't last two days. She may as well of killed him herself but she'd been too much of a coward.

Sighing she grabbed the rabbit from where it had fallen in the dust. She kept her eyes peeled for useful plants as she headed towards a cluster of those odd trees. Little white flowers caught her eye and she couldn't believe her luck. Devils nettle might sound like a bad thing but it was exactly what Johanna needed right now. She stooped to pick a bunch of the tiny flowers which where a good natural disinfectant. This sudden bout of good luck was unnerving Johanna slightly. She'd only met Betch so far in the arena and had found exactly what she needed. Surely this couldn't last. At the tree she broke of a branch and collected some sap in between two of the large leaves. She jogged back to her cave with her findings and treated her wound. First with the crushed up Devil's nettle, ,which also numbed the pain, and sealed it with the tree sap. Finally, she covered it with moss she tied on with long grass.

Hunger was really starting to eat into her now so she skinned and gutted the rabbit and left the cave to start a fire. It didn't take long for her to get a spark from the two pieces of rock big enough to light the bone dry wood she'd found. She kept glancing around as the meat cooked knowing it was just a matter of time before someone noticed the signal a fire was, but she was just so hungry. The meat was just cooked and Johanna took a few bites as she stamped out of the fire even if it burnt her mouth a bit. She'd thought she'd got away with it. Then she heard the shouts, in the distance at first but definitely coming closer.

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Johanna thought fast. She couldn't get back to the cave in time without them seeing so instead she ran away into the tall grass and dropped down still clutching her precious food. The yellow grass would hide her completely unless they got too close. The voices were coming along the valley towards Johanna and she could tell now it had to be the Career's. No one else would dare make this much noise and no one else was in such a large alliance. Six heavy feet pounded the valley as they jogged towards the place where Johanna had made her fire. They stopped by the burnt grass and Johanna could hear their heavy breathing.

"Damn it! They're gone; this is your fault Sole!" Johanna lifted her head slightly as she recognised the voice of Beau from district 1 who had clearly become the leader of this alliance. His heavy boots were squaring up to another boy with huge leg muscles, it could only be district 4.

"Me? You were yelling as well!" Sole's feet stepped forward to face him; the infighting had started early. With such a large group it was inevitable she supposed. A girls feet stepped in-between them breaking them up.

"We're wasting time, they could still be in the area!" Krystal snapped at the two boys. "We should search!"

"Look around," Beau said, presumably gesturing to the surrounding area. Johanna ducked down willing the grass to hide her, heart almost beating out of her chest. "There's no one here. They've already cleared off to another part of the arena. I say we try up the hill and track down district 6 who ran off that way."

"But district 7 went this way and I want to finish of that little blonde girl!" Brianna spoke for the first time, voice dripping with malice.

"Ugh, no one cares about district 7 Brianna! You saw how she was in training she'll probably die anyway if you say you've already wounded her. She's no threat; we'll get to her when we get to her." Beau's arrogance was working to Johanna's advantage.

"Who put you in charge?" Growled district 2 defending his district partner.

"You really want to do this?" Hissed Beau threateningly.

"Cut it out!" Barked the girl from district. I'd barely heard her speak before and her sudden command seemed to shock the Career's too. "We've got tributes to hunt and we don't need to be fighting among ourselves. So let's go find 6!"

The Career's ran silently after the girl from 4 up the hill. Johanna wondered how she could command them like that. Maybe they were intimidated by her brute strength or they sensed she had more brain cells than the lot of them combined. Strength and at least some sense; Johanna would have to look out for that one.

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**If you liked it please review it otherwise I have no idea if anyone even liked it. Expect an update tommorow as I mostly update daily :) **


	5. The Arena: Betch and Hana

**Sorry there was one major mistake in the last chapter I just noticed. Where it says 'Barked the girl from district.' I meant 'Barked the girl from district 4.' Enjoy :)  
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It was early evening and Johanna was back in her cave after the Career's had cleared off. With a full stomach and her wound healing well, she was starting to feel more optimistic. All she needed was a weapon and she'd be ready to do more than just hide. A cannon had boomed a couple of hours after the Career's had left so she assumed they'd found one of district 6. They were really burning through the other competitors. The six Career's almost outnumbered the seven other tributes. But all this would surely make their alliance even more unstable as they grew closer to the point where they must turn on each other.

Then out of nowhere she heard shouts and heavy foot falls again. What were they doing back here again? She poked her head out of the hole just enough that she could see the top of the hill but not so she could be seen through the grass and shrubs. The Career's silhouettes' in the twilight sky were racing along parallel to the valley, in chase of a small boy with dark hair and a rucksack bouncing on his back. It was Betch.

There was nothing she could do but watch, and she really didn't want to do that, so she was just about to lower herself back into her cave when Krystal fell to her knees clutching at a knife in her neck. Johanna's eyes widened in surprise as she saw the Career spit blood onto the ground. In her hand was clutched an axe. Johanna homed in on her weapon but with the entire Career pack so close, she wasn't sure how she could get it. But who had thrown the knife? The rest of the Career's had barely paused in their chase, knowing there was nothing to be done anyway, and they had overtaken Betch. Beau held him to the ground pressing one hand into his windpipe. But then the tall girl from district 11 leaped like a gazelle into the fight but was caught quickly by the boy from 2. He laughed holding her off the ground by her neck as she stabbed wildly into the air with a knife clutched in her tight fist, a wild look of fear and determination in her dark eyes. Johanna realised with surprise she must have been the one who threw that knife at Krystal, who was now lying on the ground caught between life and death. Betch must have found an ally after all. Betch was still on the ground in Beau's grasp struggling for breath, watching the girl from 11. He called out her name, Hana, but the Career's ignored him, focused on the dark skinned girl thrashing in the grasp of district 2.

"What are you waiting for Airan?" That must have been district 2's name that the girl from 4 barked. "Kill her!"

"No. I want to play first." Airan smiled and Hana kicked him hard in the balls. He doubled over loosening his grasp on her for just long enough. She slipped through his fingers, slashed out at Sole as she passed who avoided her knife by inches and ran faster than a cheater away from the edge of the valley. Brianna let loose an arrow that missed the mark.

"Go after her!" Snarled Beau at the girls and Sole who took off at once. "Not you." He told Airan who seemed in too much pain to move anyway.

Betch whimpered in the hold of Beau as his anger leaked into the force of his grip. Beau snapped his neck. Johanna felt distinctly sick as a cannon boomed, confirming the death of Betch.

"I'm sorry Beau!" Airan held up his hands apologetically anticipating the boys rage. "She just slipped through my fingers."

"Yeah, well," Beau drew a lethal looking knife from his belt. Another cannon boomed as Krystal died and made Airan jump. "The arena's really starting to thin out."

Airan fumbled for his sword too late as Beau's knife stabbed him through the heart. Beau let him fall forward in his arms and spoke quietly to him.

"And you just made one mistake too many."

He dropped Airan on the ground where he gargled blood for a few seconds before his cannon broke the twilight air. Beau stooped to remove his knife and clean it on the grass before running after his allies and out of sight.

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Johanna was still for a minute, taking in what she'd just seen. Two Career's down, one by Hana and one by his own ally. Her gut instinct had been right about 11; she was a threat that couldn't be overlooked. Also, the death of Airan showed Beau was clearly feeling the need to assert his power as leader of the Career's. The alliance must be crumbling already. Then of course, there was Betch. If Johanna had let him be her ally, would he be dead now? But he'd clearly found a more loyal ally than Johanna would have been in Hana. Johanna would have just run off and saved herself. It wasn't till the whirr of the hovercraft broke into her thoughts, that she realised there were supplies and weapons right in front of her and she hadn't got them.

She threw herself from the cave running before she was even upright. Reaching Krystal first, she heaved her big body over and unhooked her backpack. She then prised her cold fingers off the axe, trying hard not to look at the face. Then with an axe in her hand and the hovercraft dangerously close she threw herself onto the next body, Airan. The blood was still trickling from his wound as Johanna turned him over and caught his backpack up. She left his sword, it was of no use to her. By now the hovercraft was blasting air into Johanna forcing her to stay low as it hovered closer, flattening the grass around her. She crawled forward to Betch, who looked very small in death, a look of frozen fear on his face. He was light and she rolled him over quickly to grab his backpack. She rolled him back onto his front again when she was done, not wanting to leave him like that. Then she closed his eyes for the final time and ran backwards as the hovercraft took the bodies away.

The arena seemed suddenly very empty in the sudden silence after the hovercraft left and the night was really drawing in now. She fumbled with the straps of the three rucksacks and held her axe frimly in one hand as she made her way back down the slope. She dropped the packs in the opposite corner of where she sat in the cave, not having the heart to search through the dead's things so soon, and fiddled with the wooden handle of her axe. A spot of the dead girl's blood was on the handle and Johanna scrubbed at it with her hoody wanting every part of those dead bodies gone. Then the Panem anthem blared and she stood up to look at the dead once more, this time in the sky.

First there was Krystal simpering in her picture, and Johanna remembered how the blood she'd spat out stained the grass. Then there was Airan and she could see his startled expression as he'd faced Beau's rage for the final time. Then the boy from district 6 who must have been the Career packs victim after they'd been to the valley the first time. Then it was Betch, and Johanna saw instead the fear frozen forever on his face now, rather than the picture in the sky. Finally a non-descript girl from 12 who must have been the death in the night. The first night in the arena felt so forever ago but it really been just one long, bloodthirsty day since.

Johanna sunk back into the cave, pulled a sleeping bag out from one of the backpacks, and used another pack as a pillow. Before she drifted off, she forced herself to remember all the competitors who remained in the arena. There were the Career's: Beau, Brianna, Sole and his district partner who, come to think of it, she was pretty sure was called Titane. There was Hana from 11, who she wondered how had survived this long with the Career's chasing after her, and then the girl from 3 who was good at electronics. The rest were relatively unknown to Johanna. She worked back through the dead piecing together there must be the girl from 6, the boy from 9 and the boy from 12. That was it. How quickly the dead piled up making the individual horror reach a stage where it was hard to feel anything anymore.

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**I'm thinking of introducing some kind of Gamemaker threat to the tributes like the flood in Annie Cresta's games, the fire attack in Katniss', or a muttation like the tracker jackers. Suggestions would be appreciated and review it if you liked it :)**


	6. The Arena: Becoming a killer

**I took note of those reviewers who said it was a little fast (although it is only 3 more dead than in the first 2 days of Katniss' Games and this games has a larger Career pack) so this chapter is a little slower I hope that's' okay.**

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Johanna woke in a sweat the next morning. Trapped in her sleeping bag for a horrible moment she thought she was in some kind of snare; then reality made her stop thrashing and pull herself together. In her dream, she'd died multiple times, each time worse than the last. First stalked through the woods by the Career pack and shot by a laughing Brianna; then with a knife through the neck from Hana that caused her to drown in her own blood; then her neck was snapped by Beau who looked down at her coldly; and finally stabbed threw the heart by her own ally. Trembling at the memories, Johanna hugged her knees and pressed her closed eyes into them until stars replaced the grotesque images. After a minute, she made herself get up and prepare for the day.

She ate the final leg of rabbit and some sweet orange berries she found in what had been Betch's pack for breakfast, and then redressed her arrow wound. It was really starting to heal, no longer hurting when she moved it. But an itchy scab had formed so she used the last of the Devils nettle just to be on the safe side and bound it up with bandages she had from Krystal's pack. She repacked Airan's backpack, which had been the largest, with all the food from the other packs, a water bottle, a sleeping bag, various first aid items, matches, a coil of rope, two knives and a torch. She would keep this bag on her at all times as well as her axe. Spare or pointless items like a coil of wire and an extra sleeping bag she hid at the very back of the cave in case she needed to come back for them.

Then she pulled herself out of the cave and glanced around the valley. It was her turn to be the hunter now, no more hiding from other tributes; it was time for the strong Johanna to return. With weapons and good supplies she was ready to take on the next tribute she found. Axe in hand she stalked up the hill keeping low so she would be able to see the plain before another tribute could see her. But no one was there. The Cornucopia was empty and abandoned, cleaned out of all decent supplies. Hiding inside of it Johanna laid in wait for the whole morning in the scratchy grass but still no one appeared. This was really frustrating. The longer before her first kill, the longer she had to chicken out, over think it.

She returned to the valley hot and annoyed. She vented some of her irritation into hunting and caught another rabbit. Starting a fire, which made the air distort with heat, she cooked the rabbit. She kept glancing around and jumping every time the fire crackled; waiting for another tribute to appear so she could kill them. No one came. In the end, she headed back to the cave defeated and gnawed on rabbit legs. Out of the heat of the sun she began to doubt her true intentions. Had she really wanted to find another tribute? Or had she just been fooling herself? Honestly, the idea of burying her axe in another humans flesh was not an appealing one. But if she wanted to get out of here alive, she would have to become an active player in these games.

Tomorrow she would do better. Waiting around was no longer enough, she would go find them. The rest of the day passed slowly with no cannon to be heard. The Careers must have had similar bad luck, as there were no face's in the sky that evening. Yesterday's bloodbath would probably hold the viewers for a while but if this carried on the Gamemakers would prompt the action. Those Capitol citizens wanted kids killing each other not wandering round a wasteland. She could imagine the complaints after today when the only death was a rabbit. She shuddered to think what horrible mutation or disaster they might use to push the remaining tributes together. Hopefully that shouldn't be necessary if Johanna succeeded on her mission tomorrow. By tomorrow, she would have added a new interesting factor to this otherwise predictable Games; a girl from an outlying district who knew how to kill.

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Johanna woke the next morning with a headache but not from nightmares this time. She gulped some water down and ate some bread she had from Airan's pack. The water reminded her that she had no idea where her next water source would be, and the idea of travelling through the heat of a day in this arena without water was horrifying. So she filled two extra water bottles from the Career's packs along with her own. Glancing round the cave for the final time she pulled on her backpack, grabbed the axe and left the safety of her shelter. She hiked quickly up the hill as the heat bore down on her. It seemed to be getting hotter every day; she wondered if it was the Gamemakers manipulating the weather or simply her hatred for heat that made it appear to be getting worse. The blue sky was so pale it was almost white, as if it was white hot, and the heavy rucksack rubbed the sunburnt skin of Johanna's bare shoulders. The sunscreen she'd gained from Betch would certainly help the situation but still, out in the open she could hardly stop to reapply. Sunburn was the least of her problems with lethal tributes lurking around.

She reached the summit of the hill and took a few steps on the flat, when she stopped suddenly. Listening intently, she wasn't sure what she had heard, but there was just something not quite right. It was a prickle on the back of her neck, like before Olen had appeared in the forest, but this time if someone was hiding they would want to kill Johanna not steal her game. Her heart in her mouth, Johanna moved only her eyes, scanning the area in front of her. A tiny movement caught the corner of her eye, and then she saw it. A small hand just visible inside the Cornucopia and quickly retracted. Johanna creeped forward, barely rustling the long grass, as if she were hunting a deer and didn't want to scare it. Axe weighing heavy in her hand, she lifted it ready to strike the moment the other tribute showed there self. Then a clear voice spoke.

"Johanna." The sound of her name carrying easily over the open plain shcoked her. So when Hana stepped out of the Cornucopia, she did not immediately strike.

"Please." The girl held her hands open to Johanna, no knife clutched there now. She looked much worse than when Johanna had last seen her. Her cheeks were hollow and scratches broke the smooth brown skin on the side of her face. She stood unsteadily and Johanna could see blood dripping down a wound on her leg. Johanna could fix that. Devils nettle, the bandages and she would have a good ally in Hana. She could see it now, the two of them hunting down the other tributes and eventually the Career's, becoming friends. Then what would happen? The two of them would be forced to turn on each other. Hana could see Johanna was not attacking and she smiled stepping forward slightly, thinking she had an ally.

"I'm sorry." Whispered Johanna and their eyes met just as Johanna's axe buried itself in her skull. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as Hana crumpled to the ground. Johanna stared, motionless, at the pool of blood forming around the dying girl. The girl she'd killed. The cannon boomed making Johanna's head ring and she barely knew what she was doing as she removed the bloody axe from her victim's skull. Wiping it on the grass with trembling hands she struggled to find a sense to the confusion in her mind. She thought she'd feel upset or sick, like when she'd let Betch go to his death. If not that then maybe pleased that there was one less tribute in the arena. But as she looked back at the broken body of her fellow tribute, she felt frozen into nothingness. Cold in the incredible heat of the arena, and entirely emotionless. It was like she was beyond feeling. This was not what she'd been expecting.

As she jogged away from the Cornucopia, without looking back, just like a cold-blooded killer, she wondered if she knew herself at all. Never would she have imagined herself capable of murdering, if not a friend, but an ally of her district partner. Hana had helped Betch when Johanna didn't and she had repayed her with an axe to the head. But the Games twisted everything, everyone until you barely recognise yourself anymore.

**The updates may slow down from now on because I have a maths GCSE and a history GCSE round the corner that I have not revised for (panic!). Please review it and let me know what you thought :)**


	7. The Arena: the Desert

Johanna still felt bad about killing an unarmed, injured tribute but it was kill or be killed in this arena. She threw herself into the search for the Careers. Somehow, the idea of killing an armed and lethal Career was easier to stomach than ending the life of some malnourished child from the outer districts. It was strange; trying to find a palatable way of going about the utterly immoral.

The day she killed Hana she tracked the Careers to the edge of a huge expanse of desert. It was easy; bent grass, burnt ground and discarded food wrappers all were as clear as signposts to a seasoned hunter like Johanna. The first night she spent camped out at the very edge of the desert without any means to hide herself. Sleeping in the open for the first time was an unnerving experience. Not only could she appreciate the intense cold of the nights for the first time, every time she woke, she expected to find the Careers surrounding her.

The next day she set off into the desert. It was hard going, in the intense heat with no shade. She was soon swallowed up by the hills of sand shaped by the wind and mounds of boulders it took ages to scramble over. In an hour, she couldn't see the edge of the desert anymore and had to rely on the sun just to keep her headed in a straight line; every way she looked the landscape looked the same. The solitude, the silence and the unchanging landscape all contributed to the strange uneasiness Johanna was feeling. She decided she definitely did not like the desert, far too much open space and no comforting trees. The only vegetation was weird spiky green plants. Another hour in and she paused by the site of a fire and realised she didn't know where to go next. The signs of the Careers presence were much harder to follow in the desert where footprints disappeared into the sand and there was no grass to disturb. She paused by the ashy sand and drank some water, glad she'd filled all the bottles, as she was yet to see another water source. Hedging her bets she turned eastward. She continued that direction until nightfall, looking around for anything that might tell her she was on the right track but the signs she found were so questionable she wondered if she was just trying to convince herself. She pushed her doubts aside; they were just being more careful covering their tracks. At night she slept under the wide starry sky again, her breath leaving her in a little mist. Strange sounds filled the desert, animals cry's and little rustling movements, but nothing bothered her. She felt strangely disconnected with the rest of the arena; the last contact she'd had was the display of dead tributes in the sky which had told her the canon she'd heard at midday was the girl from district six.

The next morning, with her water supplies running dangerously low, she was beginning to realise she may have made a mistake. She'd found no evidence of the Careers for hours. The idea of having to retrace her steps now, seemed horrifying. Looking back the way she had come, she saw nothing but a sea of sand stretching into the horizon. She finished the last drops of her lukewarm water and sunk into the meagre shade of a boulder. Johanna would have cried if she could spare the water. The heat of the day was making her so sleepy and all she wanted to do was give up. Closing her eyes for a minute, she tried to pull herself together. She had to continue, if she retraced her steps now she would never reach a water source in time, the direction she was going in at least _might_ have a water source. But she was just so tired.

The air she was breathing, although already horribly dry, suddenly choked Johanna. She coughed and spluttered as she opened her eyes. At first, she thought she was hallucinating. It was like the desert had risen up in front of her to form a large cliff face of sand that continued as far as she could see. Then she felt the intense wind, the sand brushing against her skin and getting into her eyes and saw the cliff face was moving towards her. Sandstorm.

Choking as coarse sand found its way into her lungs she took off at a lightening pace over the boulders behind her. Her hands were cut and bleeding from the rough stone by the time she reached the other side but no way was she stopping to be engulfed by the swirling mass behind her. Running blindly through the hazy mist caused by the outskirts of the storm, the gale force wind howling in her ears and pushing her forward she could think of no worse fate than being caught by that storm. She'd run into Beau's knife with open arms rather than have her skin torn to pieces by the abrasive sand; her ears, nose and mouth choked with the fine solid as she was gradually buried alive. Being buried alive was one of Johanna's biggest fears, she used to have terrible nightmares about it as a child, and now it seemed they were coming true. Of course a sand storm could be survivable out in the real world but here in the Games natural disasters occurred for only one reason: to kill. It was run as the Gamemakers wanted or die a horrible fate. And right now, Johanna didn't care where they were guiding her as long as she could take at least one more clean breath of non abrasive air before her death.

After an intense twenty minutes of running flat out, Johanna's pace started to slacken. The air became harder and harder to breathe, the mist so thick obstacles appeared out of nowhere and she tripped, multiple times. Stealing a glance behind her, she could see the mile high rolling mass was practically on her. Her dehydration, general exhaustion and having to climb boulders and hills to keep a direct path of retreat had slowed her down. As she scrambled over a sand dune, hands trembling from fear and exertion, she felt her axe slip through her fingers and fall into the fine white sand. She ran back a few paces squinting to see where it had fell fumbling in the sand, eyes staring wildly at the storm threatening to overtake her. It seemed to be growing in magnitude, filling the whole sky. Tripping backwards away from the monster whilst clutching her axe to her she fell painfully down the other side of the sand dune getting a large amount of sand in her mouth. On all fours at the bottom, she vomited for a few minutes but the awful grit in her mouth was impossible to get rid of. Her eyes were stinging, her ears were ringing and try as her might she could not lift herself back up again. This is it, the end, she thought. She squeezed her eyes shut and let herself flop back on the sand, awaiting her fate.

A minute passed. Then another. And she still wasn't dead. The wind in her ears seemed to have stopped. Opening her eyes again, she could still see the huge sandstorm but it no longer seemed to be moving. It had stopped a couple of metres away, still huge and ominous but motionless. The top of the storm appeared to be crumbling, like an avalanche on a real mountain. Johanna's mind seemed to be working in slow motion as she shuffled backwards at first before getting to her feet and running once more. She willed her feet to move faster but she knew it wouldn't be enough. It was raining sand as the forceful wind that had been holding the humungous volume of sand had dropped away. In a few seconds, Johanna was buried alive.

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**I hope that was accurate to what an actual sandstorm is like but I've never seen one firsthand so that was all courtesy of info from the net. Still in exams so sorry for the short update. Please review it if you enjoyed it :)**


	8. The Arena: Water

**If you've already read chapter 8 and wondering why I have reposted the same chapter twice it's because I found the awful and repeated mistake of me saying five against one, when in fact there are only four Careers left. What can I say, I'm an idiot. **

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All was silent for a few moments after the storm. The newly fallen sand looked as if it had always been there. The bright sun looked down on the empty landscape. Then a patch of sand started to shift, as if there was something underneath it. A hand clutching an axe pushed itself out of the surface of the desert breaking the stillness. A blonde head shortly followed and a skinny pale faced girl pulled herself out into the sunlight. Johanna gasped at the air so long deprived from her and shook her whole body, trying to rid herself of that awful sand that was caught in every fold of her clothes. She pulled her long hair out of its tight ponytail so she could shake out the sand trapped in her hair too. Coughing and retching, she knelt on the ground trying to clear her dry mouth. Eventually she lay back exhausted. Staring up at the blue sky and breathing heavily, she appreciated the clean air and the chance her life might continue for a while longer. She'd even managed to keep her supplies strapped firmly on her back along with her precious axe. She let out a little laugh of relief.

The peace lasted for all but a minute. Then the sounds of five people running across the desert and angry voices, reminded Johanna this was no time to be having a lie down. The Gamemakers must have been guiding her towards something, and it seemed it was the very thing she had set out to find: the Career pack. As much as she'd like to launch a wild attack on them, she didn't like the odds of four against one. First she needed a plan. The sounds were coming from her left so she took off up the hill behind her, leaving behind a little cloud of sand that billowed out from her sandy hair now flowing freely down her back, and dropped in the sand just over the summit. This allowed her to see without being seen. The four, very sandy, Careers ran into sight but stopped on a hill just opposite Johanna. Their distance from the storm meant they had probably fared better than Johanna, but Brianna's mousy brown hair had its fair share of sand and Sole had a considerable amount caught in his tufty eyebrows. But why were they so angry, surely sand in their hair didn't warrant the looks of fear, annoyance and rage reflected on all their faces?

"They were here!" Sole yelled gesturing to the hill they stood on.

"Well there obviously not here, genius!" Yelled Brianna right back.

"You guys are such idiots! Who doesn't grab their back packs?" Screamed Titane. Then Johanna noticed that out of all five Careers, only Titane had a pack of supplies. "You remembered your weapons alright, no one think to just pull on a backpack?"

"Oh I'm sorry! I was a bit busy running away from the crap load of sand FALLING FROM THE SKY!" Brianna voice was getting more and more high pitched by the minute. Johanna felt herself grinning; it seemed that the Careers had lost more than she had in the sandstorm. The precious supplies they relied on had disappeared like a mirage in the desert. This definitely put the odds in favour of Johanna, who still had good supplies and could fight as well as they could. Now if she could just get rid of the overwhelming advantage of numbers, she really might have a chance.

"Just shut up and keep searching, will you!" Yelled Beau who had both his hands pressed to his temples and his tone was dangerous.

"Look there's no point, your supplies are buried in the sand, and we'll never find them now." Titane sounded resigned; Johanna had to pity her having to put up with such stupid allies. "Let's just head back to that pool we found and work out what we have got."

Johanna's ears pricked up when they mentioned water, God she needed a drink desperately. She followed the dejected group, keeping a safe distance. The bickering had given way to a loaded silence. They were only walking for around ten minutes when they reached their destination. A dip in the desert with lush vegetation and a pool of water that reflected the blue sky and glistened in the sunlight. Johanna's mouth seemed even drier when she saw it. It seemed so out of place in the desert, she wondered if this happened in the real world or whether the Gamemakers were playing with the laws of nature again. She crouched behind a leafy shrub at the top of the slope in and watched as the Careers counted what was left of there once abundant supplies. Well, Titane was counting, while Brianna was just picking sand out of her nails with a knife, Beau was pacing up and down like a caged tiger and Sole was sitting on the ground fiddling with his spear nervously.

"Okay that's it." Said Titane after a little while.

One sleeping bag, a few spare knives, a water bottle, matches, a first aid kit, a torch, a pack of dried fruit and a large loaf of bread. That was all that remained of those hard fought supplies from the Cornucopia.

Beau swore loudly and stabbed his knife into the sound. The Careers watched him nervously. If they knew how Airan had died then it was no wonder they were nervous. Johanna wondered who would be blamed for this disaster. But although sullen looks were thrown around the camp as the day drew to a close, Beau's own part in the loss of the supplies meant he was keeping his knife to himself. The Careers spent the time till nightfall in a subdued silence. Had Johanna been in their position, she would have spent the time before nightfall hunting or gathering but she supposed the idea of surviving on the land around them was beyond them. Johanna crept around two sand dunes away where she cleaned up and ate. But she was so thirsty the food seemed like sawdust in her mouth. The only water supply for miles was the oasis surrounded by her most lethal competitors. She tried to formulate a plan to get to the precious water, but her mind was hazy and exhausted. Taking the whole group on at once, especially in her dehydrated state, was suicidal. Maybe if she'd made an ally she could have had them distract the Careers while she got water. Johanna lent back against the sand, beyond thinking, just wanting to go to sleep. It had been a hideously long day.

After a few minutes, she got up and walked back to the pool, drawn by the water but knowing it was unreachable. She tried to pull herself together; she had made the decision to do it alone so that is what she would do. Johanna had killed good people to get to this point so she had to survive now. She bet the Careers were tired too, and if she was lucky, they were stupid or arrogant enough to fall asleep and leave the pool unguarded. She would have to sneak into the camp and fill her bottles while they slept. Simple.

She got back to her vantage point above the Career camp as the sun set, leaving an eerie half-light in the arena. The Careers had started a large fire and were eating dinner around it. It was a respectable meal, bread and some pork strips they appeared to have gained from their sponsors, but the faces lit up by the fire were dissatisfied. They also had new backpacks to split their limited supplies up. This was very generous of the sponsors at this stage of the Games and Johanna felt a pang of jealousy, but it didn't seemed to have dawned on the Careers how lucky they were to have received anything at all. The Panem anthem blared into the silent desert but there were no faces in the sky. Johanna wondered what the Gamemakers would do next to try and rectify this situation. She supposed the aim of the sandstorm was to drive her to death by the Careers but they had been too distracted by their own predicament to notice her in time. Or maybe the Gamemakers had been expecting Johanna to launch an attack on them. They had seen how she'd killed Hana, were they giving her the opportunity to kill off some of the Careers? The Careers weren't doing a particularly good job filling the games with blood and violence this year; this could be her opportunity. But right now she was so exhausted not to mention dehydrated she couldn't take on the whole Career pack. She just hoped they didn't introduce some other 'prompt' until she had got some water.

At the Career camp, the tributes were sleeping now, close to the fire with their hoodies wrapped around them for warmth as the temperature rapidly dropped. The only remaining sleeping bag had been taken by Beau. There had been no objections; Johanna suspected they were trying to keep him happy. With a swiftly changing temperament and an undeniably superior ability to kill than any other tribute, it would be like making camp with a temperamental bear. The tribute on watch was Sole, who was staring glumly into the fire. Johanna watched his large silhouette by the fire willing him to fall asleep, as her mouth grew drier than the desert around her. It must have been ten hours or so since her last drink of water. When she swallowed, it was painful. There was still the taste of her own bile in her mouth from earlier. Often she found herself watching the pool of cool water longingly, like she could drink it with her mind.

To distract from her thirst and to keep herself from falling into a dangerous sleep so close to the Career camp, she went through the remaining tributes in the arena in her head. It was the final eight, half of which was made up by the Careers. There was Beau, lethal no doubt about it but he wasn't exceptionally bright. If Johanna could just catch him when his guard was down, her axe could be in his head before he got a chance to show her how he had got a ten in training. The other male Career left was Sole, twice the width of Johanna but he was so stupid. Next there was Brianna, who was one Career Johanna would happily take on. They were fairly evenly matched with size, and Brianna's arrogance could easily be her undoing. Anyway, Johanna was way better with her signature weapon than Brianna had proved herself to be. Brianna may have killed plenty of targets in the training centre but in the arena she had been pretty average. Then there was Titane. She was definitely a worry, two heads taller than Johanna with infinitely more muscle, she could rip her in two. Furthermore, she was as smart as all the other Careers combined. Then it was the unknown entities, the tributes from the outer districts. Were they just lucky and avoided the Careers so far, or were they real contenders? She remembered some of them from training, the little girl from 3 for example. The little mousy brown plaits swinging about her face as she talked nervously to her district partner, who was now long dead. She hoped she hadn't found any wire. It took her a good few minutes to remember the other two remaining tributes. The boy from district 12, she remembered his dark hair and hollow cheeks at the tribute parade, and the boy from 9. The boy from 9 had been lanky with coppery hair that kept falling in his face as he tried his hand at lighting a fire. Johanna speculated about what skills they might possibly have that had helped them make it this far, but this just gave her a pounding headache. She was freezing and Sole was still on watch. The lack of water was starting to affect her more than physically now, thinking logically was like wading through sticky mud and her sense of time was hazy.

Around what must have been midnight, but felt like several days later, Johanna was considering just running into the camp and launching a blind attack on Sole. Then she saw him stand up and look around at the other sleeping tributes, then out into the desert. She ducked down, wondering if he had heard her weirdly fast heartbeat, but when she raised her head a few minutes later she saw he had decided there was no immediate danger and gone to sleep. This might be her only chance. She fumbled through her things to find her empty bottles and left everything else, save her axe. After waiting as long as she could bear for Sole to be properly asleep, she made her way silently down the slope.

She moved like she was in a dream, floating down the soft sand. The lack of water was making everything seem unreal. Her legs trembled and she was having trouble not breaking into a panicked run, but she still had enough sense to remain slow and quiet. The sound of her shallow breaths filled her ears as they rattled through her dry mouth. She had descended the slope the opposite side of the pool to the Career camp, and now she slowly stepped out of the vegetation and onto the open sand by the edge of the pool. She dropped to her knees by the edge of the water, as the moonlit sand seemed to move under her. She unscrewed the lid of her bottle with shaking hands and watched the fire on the other side that seemed to suck the light from its surroundings, and the shadowy figures on the ground. But the camp seemed to be quiet. One bottle full she dared to fill another; it seemed to fill painfully slowly and the air bubbling out horribly loud. With each splash in the water, she thought the Careers would wake up and slit her throat, staining the clean water red. It was tempting just to sit here and guzzle down all the water she'd been missing, but she must focus on her task, who knows how long till she found water again. Half way through filling the third bottle, she heard someone moving on the other side of the pool. Frozen with fear, her heart in her mouth, she stayed crouched by the water. A grunt and sleeping bag fabric shifting told her it was Beau. Panic forgo sense, and she pulled the water bottle out of the pool with a horribly loud splash. If he hadn't heard her before then he did now. She sprung up the slope again, adrenalin making her move with inhuman speed, not pausing to see if she was pursued. The shifting sand hissed as it was displaced by her desperate feet and she clutched the bottles to her. The roaring in her ears so loud she couldn't tell if anyone was running after her.

At the top of the slope and well into the undergrowth, she stopped, ready to flee at a moment's notice, breathing short laboured breaths and looked back. Beau stood motionless staring across the water at the place she had just left. His knife was slightly raised but he wasn't after her, her speed must have conquered the time it took him to wake up. He rubbed his hand over the dark bristles on his head and she could see his defensive stance relax. A splash in the dark, a little movement, probably just some animal. Beau walked over to where Sole was snoring and kicked him awake.

"You're supposed to be on watch!" Barked Beau harshly and Sole jumped to his feet quickly and took his previous position by the fire. Beau shook his head angrily at the other boy but apparently the lure of his warm sleeping bag overcame his temper, because soon he settled back into his previous position on the sand.

Johanna breathed again. She hurried back to where she had left her backpack, and then retreated as far away as she thought she could find her way back from. With all her remaining focus, she dropped the right amount of iodine into the water and gnawed on her fingernails as she waited. The sweet, life saving water soothed her dry throat and rattled nerves. Never had she appreciated water so much in her life.

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**Longer update than usual but I couldn't find a good place to stop. Only one exam left then I am off for the summer and consequently free to update lots, review it if you liked it or disliked it :)**


	9. The Arena: Arrow girl

**I'm not sure about this chapter so after a thousand rewrites I've decided just to post it and see what happens. I find writing violence and gory stuff tricky so feedback would be appreciated.**

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Johanna woke the next morning to the unreasonably bright desert sun and cramped limbs from sleeping on the sand. As soon as she was awake enough to focus she was staring around the immediate area checking for attackers, but it seemed the Careers hadn't surrounded her whilst she slept. It was still very early judging by the position of the sun in the permanently cloudless sky. She must have been asleep for around five hours. The incident by the pool had taken on a dream like quality in Johanna's memory, lit by moonlight with a soundtrack of her frantic heartbeat. She had to take a large gulp of water to fully believe she had managed to get within a few metres of the Career camp, spent ten minutes in knife throwing distance and got away undetected. Spurred on by her success, and a breakfast of a roll and some berries, Johanna made her way back to the site of the Career camp as the sun rose in the sky. The full heat of the day was yet to come and the temperature was almost pleasant. Johanna only wished her task was as pleasant. There was no putting it off now; take out a Career was the first job of the day.

When she reached the Career camp, they were still sleeping, except for Brianna who appeared to be on watch. She had a frown on her face and kept looking round resentfully at the sleeping Careers. Within a few minutes of Johanna watching, Brianna got up and very deliberately kicked a metal water bottle over which let out a loud clang, breaking the quiet of morning.

"Jesus Christ, Brianna." Moaned Titane as she sat up with her hands over her ears.

"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to wake you." Apologised Brianna, trying to mask the malicious smile that was on her face. Titane just glared at her in a reply, not fooled, but too tired to do anything about it. The other Careers were shifting now.

"Okay. Well I'm up now." Said Beau stretching his muscley arms and pulling himself out of his sleeping bag. He dropped to the ground and starting doing press-ups. Titane stared disbelievingly at such energy so early in the morning. Sole hadn't even made a move, he was still lying in the sand, although his eyes were open. Beau stopped mid press up and raised his head to glare at the other Careers.

"What are you all sitting around for? Get some f**ing breakfast ready" The other Careers quickly got up and scurried around making breakfast. Soon they were all eating, although none of them looked very satisfied with the meal. As soon as they were all finished Brianna stood up.

"I'm going to go hunting." Brianna announced and had started to walk away when Beau's words caught her.

"Yeah. Good luck with that, arrow girl." Beau sarcastically sneered as the other Careers stifled laughs. Brianna stopped, flicking her lank hair off her shoulder.

"And what do you mean by that?" Brianna tried to reply with confidence but her voice was a little too shrill. Maybe she sensed danger, the first stage to dehumanising a fellow tribute was replacing there real name with a derogatory nickname. Then came the knife in the back.

"I mean, I very much doubt you'll hit anything." Beau's grin widened as Brianna's face went a blotchy pink, I bet she was regretting asking him to clarify now.

"I'll do just fine. I killed Hana remember?" Brianna spat out shortly, trying to control her temper.

"No, you didn't. You hit her in the leg and you were just lucky she died of her injuries." Beau's calm manner seemed to be infuriating Brianna but they both knew she was in no position to argue back properly. It seemed the Careers were unaware Hana hadn't been their kill. Johanna remembered the bloody wound on Hana's leg that she realised now must have been an arrow wound.

Brianna looked round furiously at the other Careers but no one jumped to her defence. None of the Careers had warmed to the whiney girl. Beau just sat there with a wide grin on his face as Sole chuckled trollishly, and even Titane had a small upturn on her usually serious mouth. Brianna, realising no one was going to defend her, glared at her ally's one last time and adjusted the quiver of arrows on her back before storming away from the camp. Johanna circled the oasis to follow Brianna at a steady jog. Her heartbeat was weirdly loud in her ears and she twisted the wooden handle of her axe nervously in her fingers. She knew what came next. Now was the time to take Brianna out.

Johanna let her have a large lead, it was easy to follow her in the open desert, and there were few places to hide if Brianna suddenly turned around. But Brianna was running at a steady pace with her head down, not ideal for hunting. She was most likely scaring off anything that was around with her noise and she wasn't paying any attention to signs of possible prey. So what was she doing? Suddenly Brianna stopped, out of site of the oasis now, and glanced around her. Johanna jumped behind one of those weird spiky plants and caught her fingers on the spikes. Damn. She sucked the pinpricks of blood on her fingers as she watched Brianna drop her backpack onto the sand and search through it. Johanna crept out from behind the plant and moved silently forward. From here, she could see Brianna was opening a packet of pork strips and eagerly stuffing her face. This was low; stealing food from your own allies in a time with such limited rations. If Johanna had any doubts about ending this girls life, they were gone now. She crept even closer, breathing racing, her axe slightly raised. Then Brianna's head snapped up and she saw Johanna. An arrogant smile twisted her features and in less than a second, an arrow was flying towards Johanna's head. Instinct made Johanna duck just in time, and the arrow whizzed off into the desert.

"Really need to work on your aim." Johanna laughed; escaping death had made her feel a bit manic. Adrenaline pumped through her, as without pausing to think, she threw her only weapon at the mousy brunette. Brianna was fitting another arrow in her bow but before she could let it fly Johanna's axe buried itself in the flesh of her arm. With a wail of pain and surprise, she dropped the bow. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, the bow thumped onto the sand with a sense of finality and before Brianna could retrieve it, Johanna flew forward and was on top of her. The packet of dried meat spilled onto the sand, forgotten.

Grunts and squeaks were the only sounds as the two girls grappled with one other. Johanna was pushing Brianna's face into the ground whilst she struggled to remain on top of the wriggling girl who was using her good hand to scratch Johanna's unprotected face. Evenly matched the struggle ensued for a few further seconds as Brianna used her fingernails and teeth as weapons and Johanna tried to get her hands round her throat. Then Brianna bit down hard on Johanna's finger. Letting out a series of choice swear words the blonde girl ripped the bloody axe from Brianna's arm, the handle slippery in her shaking hands. Brianna let out a scream to wake the dead. Johanna raised the axe with both hands but Brianna used the opportunity unseat her. Johanna was falling backwards in space, her axe slipped from her fingers, and her head slammed back into the sand.

She scraped at the sand in vain as she tried to pull herself upright, but now Brianna was on top of her. The weight on her chest made it hard to breathe and all she could see when she squinted upwards was blue sky and Brianna face, now with a vicious look of triumph. Brianna's hand was pressing painfully into her windpipe and the other hand was struggling to pull something free from her belt. Brianna looked sickly pale, as blood leaked from her wound onto Johanna, but triumphant as the knife she pulled free from her belt sparkled in the sunlight.

"I don't know how you even thought you could try blondie." Brianna face was inches from Johanna's as she spat out the venomous words. Johanna was gasping for air and her vision was starting to go blotchy. Brianna's voice was fading and distant but the feeling of cold metal at her neck was a sharp reminder that this was reality. Her survival instinct took over as Johanna used the remaining strength in her oxygen-starved muscles to dig her fingers into the open wound on Brianna's arm, hard. She felt the other girl writhe in pain and the hand loosened at her neck. This was enough for her to throw the distracted girl off her. Johanna was still gasping for air as she scrabbled around in the sand for her axe. She felt the wooden handle in her desperate fingers and without hesitating, she pulled herself over to where Brianna lay in a growing pool of blood.

Brianna eyes were dilated from pain but Johanna didn't even give her a chance to scream before her axe was smashing into her skull. Johanna could see the other girls brains and blood spurting out but to her horror, Brianna still seemed to be alive. Now the screams came, unearthly and horribly high as inexplicably Brianna continued to writhe on the ground. Johanna hacked again and again into her victims face and skull warm blood splashing back into her grim face, letting out all the rage she felt against the Capitol for making her do this. The girl's face was so smashed up it no longer looked human when the canon finally sounded.

Johanna stood up slowly and backed away from the monstrosity she had committed, the canon still ringing in her ears. There was so much blood everywhere, staining her blonde hair, covering her face and drying on clothes. Rubbing a shaking hand across her mouth she realised her hands were also covered in blood. She doubled over and retched but no vomit would come. She had just witnessed the stuff of nightmares and the most disturbing part was that she had been the monster of this dark imagining. As she straightened up, she heard the unmistakable sounds of a group of people fast approaching. The Careers.

She ran without even turning to see how close her pursuers were. She just needed to get away, but the one thing she couldn't run from was the image of Brianna still struggling as her brain leaked out that was branded across her eyes in red. The sand flew under her feet and she was soon engulfed by the myriad of dips and furrows of the desert with her pursuers left behind. The anonymous killer continued to run on. Stopping would mean thinking. Right now she really couldn't face her own thoughts.

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**Sorry about long time no update but now exams are over I'm free all summer! The weather is typically rubbish so I shall probably spending lots of time inside and writing for you lovely people. Also, I'm not sure if I should change the rating to M for the violence. I couldn't decide if the f-word is okay for T-rated stories so I compromised and starred it out. I hope I haven't offended anyone... Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review as it keeps me motivated and keep them coming :)**


	10. The Arena: Farro and Aullie

**Little note, when I wrote the name Aullie I meant it to be pronounced like Ollie but i wanted to change it up a bit as it sounds too now and not Panem.**

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Johanna didn't stop running away for the rest of the day. She took breaks when her limbs started to hurt but inevitably continued forward, even though the run became something half way between an uneven jog and just stumbling across the desert. The vague aim in the back of her mind was to try and find a lake or river so she could wash of the blood that had dried into a crusty mess all over her body and clothes. It wasn't vital for her survival to be clean, but it was like somehow she imagined that by washing the evidence of her crime away she could forget it had ever happened. But how could she, or anyone else, ever forget when she had been recorded and broadcast across the nation bludgeoning a tribute to death with an axe? She shuddered to think what her family would think of her after seeing that. Killing Hana had been despicable yes, but at least at had been quick; Brianna's death had been like something from a nightmare. Blood soaked memories and what her district must think of her now haunted her mind, giving her another reason to run and run. It was harder to think when your energy was drained.

She couldn't bring herself to eat anything even though she had plenty of food, this helped with the haze. Just after her father died when Johanna was thirteen, she'd used this trick to make the memories go away. Not eating made life like looking in the wrong end of a telescope, everything seems far away and doesn't affect you as much. It wasn't a nice feeling, but emotions like grief were less sharp. Her brothers had noticed before things got out of hand. Johanna had felt too guilty to continue, she didn't want to be an additional burden to them. But now the idea of the haze was very tempting.

She tried to think logically and conjure up some of the hate she'd had for Brianna to overcome the guilt. Brianna would have killed Johanna if she had the chance and she would have done it without a second thought. Furthermore, Johanna had done a good thing for every other tribute from the outlying districts, taking a Career out of the game. Even the Careers would have more rations and no longer a whiney ally. But one moment made it hard to call killing Brianna a good thing. Johanna had met the eyes of the terrified girl as she raised her axe to smash into her skull for the first time, and she'd seen not just a vicious Career, but also a frightened teenager fighting for her life. She was just a fifteen-year-old girl selected to play a horrible game. Volunteered, Johanna corrected herself. That made Johanna snap back to reality somewhat. She wanted to do this, to kill children. Did that mean she deserved to die? Surely, no one deserves to die, not in that way? But this was no time to be pondering the ethics of her situation; it was all corrupt and immoral. If she could just finish this then she could be a good person again, once it was all over.

Johanna barely noticed as the ground changed from sand to dusty red earth under her feet, but as the dying sun illuminated shrubs and low trees, she became aware of her surroundings again. She paused in the changing landscape, realising the seemingly never-ending desert did in fact have an end. This must connect with the scrubby grassland she'd inhabited before the desert. She tried to orientate herself but it was tricky since the sand storm to have a sense of direction. But getting out of that godforsaken desert gave her a small twinge of hope that, however quickly stifled, still warmed her a bit. She ran on with new energy into the maze of dry plants and the terrain became grassy underfoot. The presence of bushes and trees surrounding her calmed after being so long in the terribly empty desert. The landscape seemed to welcome her like a familiar friend, muffling her footfalls and her emotions. It seemed far more likely too, to find water here.

Then she spotted it. Glistening in the last strains of the setting sun, partially hidden by the greenery, what appeared to be a small river. She ran in earnest now, her backpack feeling like no weight at all, and splashed into the waiting water, tossing of her shoes as she ran. After soaking her feet as the current played at her ankles, she reluctantly left the comforting water to drop her axe and backpack on the riverbank. This was risky, but the Careers were far away and she was feeling so beyond fear. It wasn't that she thought she was untouchable, more that she could no longer summon the strength to care whether she lived or died. The sun was gone now, and the first stars started to appear as Johanna peeled off her clothes that were glued to her by blood. She placed her clothes at the edge of the water with stones weighing them down to keep the current from taking them away. The water surrounding the clothes went slightly red as if the clothes were bleeding and Johanna stepped into the river well away from the red stain. The clear river showed Johanna her reflection for the first time in days, and she was shocked by what she saw. Standing up to her waist in the pleasantly cool water, in just her underwear, she could see the way her shoulders protruded painfully through her skin. She could count every one of her ribs. The initial sunburn had faded leaving her with unhealthily pale looking skin that almost glowed in the moonlight. There were bruises everywhere, particularly round her neck from Brianna's chokehold, scratches all over her face and the wound on her arm looked as if it would leave an ugly scar. Her long silvery blonde hair was free from the hair band long lost somewhere in the desert, and reached down her back in a series of messy knots matted with sand and dried blood. She splashed out and the offending reflection was lost in the rippling water. That was not the real Johanna. The real Johanna was reflected in the cracked and faded mirror in her bedroom, or perhaps in the wide river of her district, when her pale complexion was coloured by the early morning sun.

She ducked her head, immersing herself entirely in the river, and swam a few moments in the pressing silence underwater. This could be her river back home. She could emerge and find the savannah had morphed into a forest. Then she heard the strains of the Panem anthem distorted by the water and she surfaced. As the sky was lit by harsh artificial blue light, she got back to the task of washing her dirty hair and skin. It was only Brianna today and Johanna tried not to meet the eye of the accusing image in the sky. By the time the slideshow shut off, the novelty of the river was gone also and she was feeling distinctly cold, as the temperature of the air on her bare skin dropped at an unnaturally fast rate. Johanna finished washing quickly, and shivering a bit, left the water to grab the clothes from the riverside. They were as clean as could be expected; she'd just have to live with the stains. Johanna's hands were white with cold as she quickly scrubbed off the dried blood on her axe. It felt a bit ritualistic, scrubbing away the blood in the moonlit river. Johanna was just inspecting the blade for any remaining marks, when she heard quiet footsteps approaching. She bundled her clothes together with one hand and grabbing the backpack and axe with the other, ran into the mess of bushes by the river. A little way in she threw herself and her things to the ground behind a large prickly bush. Just as she dropped to the ground, the two boys walked around the bend in the river. They were following the edge of the river opposite to Johanna and talking in quiet voices. One of the shadowy figures was tall and lanky whilst the other looked around thirteen at the most.

"So you work in the fields then, Farro?" The boy from 12 enquired curiously. Johanna recognised his hollow cheeks and jet-black hair from training.

"Yeah. I'm one of the lucky ones. The factories' are grim. At least I get to breathe clean air whilst I break my back for the Capitol." There was an undertone of resentment and anger in the boy from 9's tone. The conversation lapsed as Farro, the lanky red head from 9, kicked small rocks in his path and the boy from 12 studied him quietly. Johanna scraped the back of her memory to work out that the fields he was referring to must be wheat fields. District 9: grain.

"Well. I suppose that's lucky for us." Farro looked across at him as 12 floundered with the words to make him feel better about what is ultimately a dire situation. "I mean, if you didn't work in the fields, you wouldn't know how to use that."

As he said that last part 12 gestured gingerly at a large curved knife 9 was carrying. It glinted creepily in the moonlight. Johanna was pretty sure she'd heard it called a sickle back in training, used to cut grain, but she supposed it could be used to cut people. Like her, he was making use of the skills taught to harvest grain or lumber in a way they were never intended to be used.

"I guess you're right." Agreed Farro quietly giving the smaller boy a reluctant smile.

"You'll be fine. You have a weapon you know how to use." Now it was 12's turn to turn morose, he was inspecting the ground in front of him thoroughly whilst he spoke. He finished in a small voice. "I won't win. I can't fight."

Farro didn't appear to know what to say to that at first and silence reigned for a while, except for the quiet splashing of the river and there light footsteps.

"You know I'll help you as long as I can. I mean I can't forever but, yeah." He said awkwardly, they both knew they'd have to turn on each other eventually.

"I would have frozen or starved to death long ago without you. I'm the muscle and, Aullie, you're the..." Farro was obviously trying to ease the sudden tension with bad humour. He couldn't find the right way to finish but Aullie, who was now laughing as the scrawny boy next to him referred to himself as 'the muscle', finished for him.

"The common sense and basic survival instincts." Aullie said raising his eyebrows questioningly.

"Yeah." Farro agreed quickly, pleased they had moved on from the difficult subject, but then realised what he had agreed to. "Wait no, hang on a minute! I so have common sense as well!"

The indignant tone of Farro only increased Aullie's laughter.

"You wanted to light a fire the first night and we would have ended up like the girl from six if I hadn't stopped you! Remember those berries you found? Deadly, my friend." Aullie patted Farro on the back in mock consolation. "It's okay, you play with the big knife and I'll make sure you don't do something incredibly stupid."

They were both laughing now, as the redhead acknowledged the truth of the younger boy's words. Johanna shook her head at their stupidity. They had made the worst mistake you could; they had made friends with their opponent. Allies could work for the early stages of the Games but by now, any victor should have gone off to take their own chances. Still, Johanna found herself feeling oddly jealous of them as their voices faded off into the distance. How long had it been since she'd had an actual conversation with someone? How long since she'd heard a friendly voice? Too long, she realised. The night was too quiet when the boy's voices had drifted away. To distract from her overwhelming loneliness, Johanna busied herself laying out her clothes on the ground to dry beside her, and finding her sleeping bag. She zipped on her thankfully still clean hoodie that she never wore during the day because of the heat, and got into her sleeping bag. She pushed herself down to the very bottom of the warm black material that was too long for Johanna, suddenly freezing in the night air. She kept her axe next to her, in easy reach, and watched her breath form little clouds in front of her face. Seeing her axe resting in the dusty earth, reminded her she probably should have taken the recent opportunity to eliminate two of her competitors. It would have been easy enough, what she was facing was a desperate alliance and probably only one real fighter. But the day had been so full of death already she hadn't had the heart to raise the axe again. Anyway, she didn't fancy fighting to the death in her underwear. Unconnected images of the day's events flashed across her consciousness as Johanna drifted into an uneasy sleep. Blood stained sand, her feet creating little clouds of dust as she ran, her clothes bleeding in moonlit water, bones through pale skin and a friendship formed in the face of death.

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**Okay I'm introducing the idea of Johanna having an eating disorder in the past not entirely randomly. Each victor uses something to escape the emotional damage and exactly what that is for Johanna is unwritten. So this is my idea for Johanna. I am currently planning to continue this post games and this will be important then, don't worry I'll make sure its resolved before catching fire because I know she was physically fit in that. I hate inaccuracies so I'll make sure it all fits to the best of my ability. Please let me know your thoughts, do you prefer chapters like this or the last one? Tell me in a review if you like :)**


	11. The Arena: the Final 7

**Just a little heads up, I'm going to take some things as being done in the way they are in the film not the book. When there's a cannon in the film at the later stages of the games you see the face of the person in the sky and I need to do this now, otherwise it going to be a bit confusing. I'm also imagining the Cornucopia as the one from the film as that looks to be fully metal as this is more convenient for what's going to happen. I generally prefer to follow how the book does things and not the film, but I needed to add a few things from the film to help me out.**

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Johanna was woken the next morning by her stomach growling to be fed and a dull headache. Starving herself for mental relief had seemed like the answer the night before but in the light of the day, she could see it was not a victor's plan. She had to keep her strength and focus if she was going to win this thing. So she pushed thoughts of Brianna's death to the back of her mind in the same place she'd stored her feelings about killing Hana and even poor little Betch's death. Afterwards. She would think about all that afterwards. She would learn how to live with herself afterwards. Without spending too much time thinking, Johanna followed her regular pattern for the rest of the day. Eat. Pack up her things. Follow the river. Hunt.

But unfortunately, the tasks took up little of her mental capacity leaving lots of room for her own thoughts to creep in. Being alone all the time left her with far too much time trapped in her own head. To try and distract herself, and because the arena's eternal heat was almost unbearable, Johanna took of her shoes and walked in the shallows of the cooling river. She tried not to think about where she was headed. Following in the footsteps of Farro and Aullie it was inevitable she would find them again, and this time she would have to kill them.

Hunting held her focus and allowed her a breather from her thoughts for a while. But she was unsuccessful. The grass waving slightly in the breeze was empty. The dark green bushes were hiding no animals. After an hour or two moving at a slow pace with her eyes focused on the riverbank, she decided to turn her attention to the river instead. This was something she surely knew about. She wished she had a fishing spear but she made do with her knife. Standing still in the shallows, she waited. The sunlight gleamed off the water but there was something else beneath the surface too. Silver fish sparkling like precious metal. It was tricky with only a knife and the first few fish got away, but in the end, she was holding a couple of glinting fish by their tails as they dripped blood into the water. It would do for now.

Hanging around in one place for so long made Johanna feel uneasy so she moved on; remembering how quickly Betch had appeared when her mind was so focused on the hunt. The rest of the day was spent following the river that was leading her gradually downhill. Around mid afternoon, she made a small fire to cook her fish. She didn't see any other tributes. In fact, she hadn't see any evidence of Farro and Aullie, but this meant nothing as she supposed Aullie was covering their tracks. The appeal of the river as a constant water source on which they could keep changing their position, made Johanna reasonably certain they were still headed this way. When the Panem Anthem, no faces, signalled the end of the day Johanna decided to make camp. The knot of bushes and trees where she made camp sheltered her from sight, but she still felt the same twitchiness she'd felt all day. Another tribute could so easily just stumble upon Johanna whilst she slept. Maybe it was just impossible to feel totally safe in the arena. She reminded herself that with a little more than a dozen tributes left it was unlikely anyone would find her, and settled down to sleep.

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Johanna woke suddenly; unaware of what it was that had woken her at first but grabbing her axe and glancing around. It must have been around midnight. But the noise that had broken the velvety night was not an attack, not a cannon, but trumpets. It soon became apparent what was going on as Claudius Templeton's voice boomed into the arena. Johanna tried to make her sleep addled brain focus on the announcement and steady her racing heart.

"Congratulations tributes, you have made it to the final seven and have done your districts proud."

Johanna imagined the other tributes, scattered around the arena, and listening as avidly as Johanna to the voice that could change their fate in a second.

"Now, it seems you are in need of supplies. The Capitol, in its infinite generosity, will lay on a feast at the Cornucopia. It will begin at sundown."

A feast. This was obviously aimed at the Careers, who were most definitely in need of supplies. She didn't know about the other tributes, but personally she was in no desperate need. She could always hunt more. Feasts were always bloody affairs and almost as notorious as the first battle for killing off large numbers of tributes. No, that wasn't Johanna's game and she knew it. She would confront the other tributes on her own terms, not the Capitols. Claudius voice had been continuing to prattle on with a spiel of Capitol catch phrases as Johanna thought. She focused back long enough to hear the last part.

"...and remember, there can only be one victor. Happy Hunger Games!"

The arena was silent again. Only one victor, as if she needed reminding. It was probably directed at the remaining alliances, a gentle nudge for them to give up all their remaining humanity and turn on their friends. Johanna was now thoroughly awake and running through a thousand outcomes for the following day. It took her several hours to fall back into a restless sleep.

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When she woke the next morning, she was still tired. All she wanted to do was curl up in her sleeping bag and never get up again. But there was no time to be lazy; she needed to build up her dwindling food supplies so she could spend time hunting other tributes not animals. But as she followed the river, like the day before, she found nothing living at all. The river was empty of glinting silver fish scales, there were no rabbits hiding in the long grass and not even any edible plants Johanna felt confident enough to try eating. This could just be bad luck, but a sickening feeling in Johanna's stomach knew there was no such thing as just luck in this arena. The Gamemakers had obviously taken away the remaining food sources because they wanted everyone at the feast, and the Gamemakers always got what the wanted.

It was late afternoon when Johanna gave up and starting running. She had no other option; the only way to survive was the feast. She wasn't even sure if this was the way to the Cornucopia, but a gut instinct made her keep sprinting along the muddy riverside. The fight would begin as soon as soon as the supplies arrived at sundown and Johanna would be at a disadvantage if she wasn't there straight away. She didn't want to cut down her already slim chances of battling the Career pack and the other tributes to some half way decent supplies. A cannon ripped through the arena making Johanna stumble as the sudden noise sent her already racing pulse through the roof. Sole's ugly face appeared in the sky. Johanna felt a smattering of hope, the Career's alliance must be over, and if they didn't come to the feast as a unit she might have a better chance. Johanna quickened her pace if that was even possible, mud splattering up her legs, as the sun started to sink dangerously low in the sky.

The river wound on and just as Johanna was beginning to think she couldn't possibly get there in time, she noticed the greenery thinning and becoming grassland. Ahead of her was a wide plain with a steep hill on one side. The whole thing was very familiar; this was the valley where she'd spent her first few days in the arena. The river stopped abruptly at the opening to the valley, not in a pool but just the end of a Capitol illusion, flowing nowhere. Nothing in this arena was real or natural, not even a river. The valley was empty, 9 and 12 must be hiding somewhere else before the feast.

Johanna crossed the valley to the hill leading to the Cornucopia, as the long grass was stained red by the dying sun. She held her axe firmly as she ascended the dusty incline. Dropping into the grass at the top, she had a clear view of the Cornucopia. This whole thing was giving her déjà vu. The plain may be deceptively empty but the other tributes must be hidden around it, hearts in their mouths, waiting for the battle to begin just like the first day. Only a quarter of the original tributes were left, but those who remained were hardened by the arena and in some cases clutching weapons. This time Johanna had to run to the Cornucopia, not away from it. This time she would be the one doing the killing.

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**Sorry for the slower updates but I have managed to probably pointlessly over complicate the feast and am having trouble balancing action with explaining what the hell's going on. Please review for my eternal love and gratitude :) **


	12. The Arena: Feast

The sun was gone now. With bated breath, Johanna waited. No countdown this time, it could start any second. It could start right now. A table weighed down with everything from backpacks to weapons rose from the ground just inside the Cornucopia. Johanna's feet were running before her mind fully registered it had begun. She spotted the redhead from 9 running towards the Cornucopia from further right, but Johanna had the lead as her feet and adrenaline carried her at a sprint across the open plain. The silver sickle flashed menacingly in his hand but right now, they were both too focused on the supplies to fight each other.

As Johanna drew closer to her goal, movement caught her eye from the shadowy depths of the Cornucopia. The girl from 3 was pushing a large rucksack out of the entrance of the Cornucopia then following it to crawl out into the open. Why was she crawling? She pulled a rubbery mat off the grass, gave Johanna one terrified look and sprinted in the opposite direction. Johanna threw her knife after the running child but missed, knife throwing had never been her forte. Johanna didn't spare anymore precious time chasing 3 and soon she was panting at the entrance of the Cornucopia. But the supplies were out of reach. The whole of the entrance to the Cornucopia was laced with coppery wires humming with electricity and occasionally sending blue sparks into the night. The girl from 3 must have crawled though the gap at the very bottom that only someone very skinny could slide through, but the grass was laced with wires too. She had taken with her the insulating rubber mat that allowed her to get out without being electrocuted. Johanna's heart sank.

In the few seconds it took Johanna to process the situation, Farro had arrived. His sickle cut through the air inches from Johanna's left ear, and she quickly turned to took on a defensive stance. They stood still for a moment both gasping for breath and waiting for the other to make the first move. Farro broke eye contact for all but a second as he glanced over at the supplies, trying to figure out the trap. This was enough for Johanna and she took a heavy lunge at Farro with her axe that he narrowly avoided. Surprise flickered in Farro's eyes, no doubt he still harboured the idea Johanna was a weakling, but soon he was fighting back as they danced in a steady stream of attack and defend. There was no taunting or even talking as they both focused entirely on the fight. The only sounds were their heavy breathing and the occasional clang of metal on metal as there weapons met. The two figures were soon shining with sweat despite the cool night air. Johanna focused on driving her adversary backwards, closer, dangerously close to the wires crackling with energy.

Farro was backed into a position less than a metre away from the trap when both of their attentions were pulled from the fight. A cannon punched a hole in the night and the girl from 3's face flashed in the sky. The Careers were on the move. There was no time; Johanna needed to get out of here, now. Johanna kicked out hard with her foot right square into Farro's chest and he stumbled backwards into his fate. His whole body vibrated as he involuntarily clung to the wires that were electrocuting him, pleading eyes focused on Johanna's emotionless face. Little blue sparks lit up the night as Johanna watched Farro being slowly fried from the inside out. The scent of charred flesh filled Johanna's nostrils. Then the cannon boomed.

Johanna stood transfixed for a moment by Farro's singed body that had now dropped to the ground until a small yell snapped her into action. The noise was an expression of pure anguish. Aullie was standing at the edge of the plain as transfixed by Farro's dead body as Johanna had been just a second ago. The pain in his eyes was obvious even from this distance. Johanna took a halfhearted step towards him axe raised but Aullie was already running.

Okay, okay, Johanna needed to think. She paced back and forth in front of the Cornucopia trying to work out how she could get to the supplies', and trying to ignore the unbearable smell of death coming from Farro and the fact the Careers could be here any second. Think, think she stared at the ground in front of her. But the solution came from the sky. A silken parachute dropped in front of her as if conjured by her desperate mind. Johanna hadn't even thought she might have sponsors. Johanna supposed her violence was appreciated in the Capitol and wasted no time in snatching up the gift. She felt a brief twinge of conscience as she was threw away her one remaining principle of not accepting help from Capitol citizens, but in the Games all principles are disposable.

The gift was a rubbery mat, similar to what the girl from 3 had snatched of the grass in her hasty retreat, it must be the key to getting to the supplies. Johanna supposed if she laid it on the ground and rolled into the Cornucopia that way she could avoid touching the wires. But would it work? Well the girl from 3 had done it, and she was clearly the more experienced than Johanna in such matters. But as Johanna was fumbling to unroll the mat a heavy fist made contact with the side of her head, making her stagger and drop the precious gift.

A dull pain throbbed through her and she shook her head to clear the stars. Turning round and stumbling backwards at the same time Johanna had to tilt her head upwards to look into Beau's face. It seemed she had forgotten just how very huge he was. Fresh blood dripped from a wound on his leg and he was panting as if he had been running for a very long time, but he still looked absolutely deadly. He lashed out at her again this time with the knife that was coloured with fresh blood, but now Johanna was prepared and she managed duck just in time.

"Ducking and dodging won't keep you alive, blondie." Laughed Beau as Johanna was forced to dance out of his reach again. She had to agree with him, he was just so damn fast; she couldn't win a fight against him. At least not a fair fight. Johanna lifted her axe to take a swipe at him but he caught her by the arm, yanking it harshly in his strong grip. He still had the energy to laugh as Johanna tried to claw at him with her free hand, panting for breath. He grabbed both of her hands in one of his muscular ones as she struggled desperately, and was raising his knife when Johanna decided to switch tactics.

"Please don't hurt me! I'll help you, I'll do anything!" Johanna whimpered pathetically. It had been a while since she'd put on the scared little girl facade but it seemed to be working. Well, Johanna was at the mercy of a lethal Career so the scared part at least was no act.

"What could you possibly do to help me?" He seemed undeterred, almost amused, but the fact she was still alive was encouragement enough for Johanna.

"The supplies. You can't reach them. I can." Johanna panted out in short phrases, thinking fast but trying to appear too desperate and fearful to be plotting anything.

"What?" Beau seemed confused; at least he'd paused with his knife.

"The wires. The whole things rigged to electrocute you. I'm small enough to slip under and then I can break the trap so you can get in."

Beau's slow mind seemed to be warring with the possibility Johanna might be a danger to him if he released her, and his need for supplies.

"Alright. But if you try anything your dead." Beau released Johanna who rubbed her wrists where the circulation had been cut off. "And leave your axe."

Johanna reluctantly did as she was told, feeling like she was surrendering one of her limbs. She had to heave Farro's charred body out of the way first which almost made her throw up. Then she unrolled the mat and arranged it carefully over the bare wires on the ground taking as long as she dared. The plan had been to get out of Beau's grasp, and now she needed to think about what she was doing next.

"Hurry up 7." Barked Beau as he glanced nervously around the moonlit grassland. He must be worried his old ally Titane would turn up. Johanna wondered if that's were he'd got the wound on his leg.

Johanna lay on top of the mat on the grass, slowly edging under the humming wires just inches above her. Touch them and she was dead. But soon she was safely inside the shadowy Cornucopia. She noticed a metal canister with the label 'high voltage' connected to a series of coloured wires that snaked through the grass to connect to the metal shell. This must be the energy source.

"What are you doing in there? Just disconnect the thing that makes it electric or whatever so I can get in there." Beau was squinting into the shadows of the Cornucopia apparently unable to see what she was doing. Good.

"Just a second. I just have to work out how to." This wasn't true, you didn't have to be from 3 to know to break a circuit you disconnect the source of power. But a plan had started to formulate in her mind and she needed a few seconds. Glancing over the table of supplies, she spotted what she needed and grabbed it. Kneeling by the silver cylinder, she tugged the collection of rubber-coated wires out of one end. The buzzing of live wires stopped abruptly, leaving the night quieter.

"Okay. It's off." Johanna had barely spoken the words before Beau was pushing his way through the coppery wires easily and rummaging through the supplies. He was entirely absorbed, even laying down his knife to greedily examine the supplies. He presumed Johanna was weapon less and too scared to try anything. He was wrong on both counts. Johanna threw one of the heavy throwing axes she'd picked up to where it buried itself deep in his lower abdomen making him roar in pain like an injured bear. He reached forward to lunge at Johanna but she danced out of his reach and he fell to the ground instead, shuddering in pain. Johanna hurriedly grabbed a promising looking backpack and quickly added a few extra and anything else she could fit. She was just hauling her new pack onto her shoulders when Beau's hand clamped around her foot dragging her downwards.

His blood soaked face was set in determination as he grunted in an animalistic way through his gritted teeth. Johanna let out a little scream as she had to cling onto the table to keep her balance and her ankle was twisted painfully. She raised the axe in her hand to try and hit at Beau's hand but they were both moving and she almost hit her own foot several times. Then she succeeded, cutting into the lines of muscle on his triceps making him release her as blood spurted from his arm.

Panting with real fear now Johanna backed quickly towards the entrance as she watched Beau still struggling, clawing in the grass to follow her, staining the ground with blood. She pushed her way out the tangle of wires so fast they cut into her skin. Only just fast enough. As she struggled out of the catching strands of metal and shuffled backwards on the ground Beau's bloody hand appeared reaching for the place Johanna's foot had been just a second ago. Johanna ran away driven by pure fear as Beau's cries followed her.

"I'm going to get you for this 7!" His angry bellows of rage rung in her ears as she ran from the lethal killer she'd just made her worst enemy.

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**Sorry if it's got mistakes and stuff but I've been editing this through a post-prom hangover haze. I could have left it till tomorrow but I haven't updated in a while so I thought you'd rather I just posted it imperfections and all. Review for internet hugs and my love :) **


	13. The Arena: Three Left

**Okay first off a huge apology it's been much longer than usual but I had a bit of a block about what happens next. It's okay, I'm back on track but I apologise if this is not my best chapter. Also I have been working on my other story (check it out if you like although it is a very different genre/writing style). **

**Thank you lovely reviewers you helped motivate me to push through the block. **

**Sugarangelcookies: Thanks and I've been using hunger games wiki a lot to check out the different districts traits. There is less Careers action mostly because it's noted in the books that tributes from outlying districts win when there's a weaker Career pack and however awesome Johanna is she hasn't been trained like a Career. Thank you for reviewing lots :)**

**Firingshootingstar: Welcome! 12 made it this far because he has good survival skills (maybe from a Katniss/Gale situation) and an alliance helps a lot. **

**Musciforever15: Welcome! Hehe, if I'm feeling inspired I stay up writing to a similar time so it's nice to know it has the same effect when reading it. Johanna is the BEST.**

**Cab839: Welcome! That's sweet but I'm just grateful for the readers I do have, you guys are the best! **

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As tempting as it had been to run and run and run, as far away from the boy who wanted her blood as possible, Johanna decided to spend the night in the cave again. Despite it's scarily close proximity to the Cornucopia, it was the best shelter and safest hide out. Sleeping in the open at this stage in the game was definitely not a good idea.

When she first dropped down into the cave, falling painfully due to her haste, she was still in panic mode. Johanna felt like something had snapped within her when she'd felt Beau's hand enclose her ankle. She'd felt utterly helpless for the first time in the arena. It had been quite possible she was about to die in this awful arena and never see her family again. She was a bundle of nerves, twitching at sounds, movement and even changes in light. Her heart rate thundered along at an abnormal speed and she wondered if it would ever return to normal. Her laboured breathes were short and sharp making her dizzy and for a brief moment she thought she might have a panic attack. But after a few moments with her head between her knees the world stopped spinning. Johanna tried to focus on an image that would calm her down as she tried to slow her breathing, and settled on the sun rising over the river in 7. The silver rippling ribbon streaked with orange as it reflected the lazy rays of sunlight. Johanna tried to find some of the serenity she used to feel there. She couldn't feel truly calm but at least it reminded her why she was doing all this. To get home to her district.

When panic had subsided to something bearable she focused instead on more practical things, like treating the cuts from the wires. Johanna found a tube of cream that smelled vaguely medical in her pack of supplies. She dabbed it experimentally on the little lines of scarlet that laced her arm and found it soothed the stinging feeling. Once she had treated her arms and the palms of her hand, she searched the heavy backpack again. She soon found an abundance of food that made her stomach gurgle appreciatively. Maybe that's why she'd been feeling so weak and panicky; the sight of food reminded her she was starving.

Johanna ate as much as she dared, it would be a waste to be sick after all. Plain bread and strips of dried meat never tasted so good. After the initial distraction of food and medicine, there was nothing to do except try and sleep for the reminder of the night. Unfortunately, despite the exhaustion that clung to every limb in her body sleep was elusive. Every couple of hours it seemed she was jerked awake by some new nightmare. By dawn she gave up. A nervous energy and desperation to end this is soon as possible made her feel very awake.

She wondered how Beau had managed to stay alive until to the dawn. She had left him with a bloody wound in the flesh of his stomach and a deep cut on his arm. She wished she had just finished him off at the time, leaving him wounded and angry was like kicking a rattlesnake. Every twinge of pain that twisted him would build the hate he must feel for Johanna and his determination to kill her. There could easily be medicine among the supplies. If he somehow healed himself, took supplies from the feast and hunted her down she would be assured a painful death. But thinking that way was not helpful.

The only way to get out of here was to finish what she'd started. Johanna decided to track Aullie that morning. Weak as it was she was hoping Titane would finish Beau off for her. She followed the valley away from the river and it soon levelled out into an open plain. It was unlikely he went too far, the only food left in the arena was in the Cornucopia. So Johanna laid in wait in the yellow grass behind a dry spiky shrub. It was deceptively peaceful lying in the gently waving grass, but the heat was intense and unyielding. The colour blue was fast becoming her least favourite colour and she would give anything for a cloudy sky and a cool wind.

Johanna waited the whole morning, watching the white-hot sun move across the empty sky, but she had always had incredible patience when hunting. Johanna tried to keep her mind blank of painful thoughts and emotions, only focusing on the immediate and tangible. The way the grass shifted with scared creatures running away; the little sounds that indicated something was approaching and finally the mop of coal black hair on the boy's head, only a little higher than the surrounding grass and completely unmissable in the field of yellow. He was approaching at a steady jog right towards where Johanna was concealed, glancing around nervously as he ran. Johanna squashed the rising pity in her heart and leapt from her hiding place to run towards the startled child in front of her. He had stopped but didn't flee, in his small hand was clutched a knife and his hollow face was set in determination.

Johanna lunged at him with the heavy axe but he darted swiftly out of reach. As they circled each other they were close enough that she could hear his stuttering breathes, and see the beads of sweat on his pale forehead. He took a desperate stab at her with the dagger he held but she caught his hand easily and wrestled the knife out of his hand. It fell to the ground and Aullie let out a dry sob of defeat. Johanna pushed the tiny boy to the ground easily and she could feel his ribs through his t shirt. She'd seen starving waifs in 7 with more body mass. Holding him down with her body weight, she grabbed the knife from her belt. It was the least painful way to do it given her current situation. She doubted the other tributes left would have cared about hacking into the tiny boy's flesh with an axe until he was dead but she would rather end this quickly, for both of their sakes. Tears were running down Aullie's face and Johanna did her best to ignore the pathetic sobs and whimpered pleadings as her knife found his throat. It was over in seconds. One swift movement with her knife that left blood pouring from his neck, and the cannon boomed. Two left. It was like a slow motion countdown.

Johanna got up robotically and walked away from the body. When she was a fair distance away, she stopped to clean her stained hands with water from her bottle. Soon her hands were clean and the hovercraft whirred behind her. Every bit of evidence of Aullie's existence was wiped from the arena. Johanna had a sick cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. Killing had begun to be scarily routine, and she would never forgive the Capitol for making it so. Each time she ended a tributes life she felt a little part of her brain shutting off emotionally.

It was just her and the Careers left in the arena. No more easy targets or defenceless children, only the real monsters willing to cut and stab their way to victory were left. And Johanna was one of them. She was starting to think the most honourable thing she could have done would be to have died at the initial bloodbath.

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**I know it's too short, I hate me too okay. I'm going camping for a few days so I will be laptop-less for a while so may be a slow update (although hopefully not as slow as this shamefully late update).**

**You may have noticed I'm doing something different at the top, I'm replying to my reviewers! I stole the idea from one of my favourite authors on here so I can show my appreciation for you taking the time to write something, by taking the time to write something back. So review for internet hugs, love AND a reply :)**


	14. The Arena: Storm

**Okay I have a few excuses for how late this is. Firstly, I was camping (no laptop) for a few days, secondly I got summer work from college which I've made myself start (cry) and lastly I wanted to write this properly because it's the final few chapters and someone told me once the 14****th**** chapter is supposed to be the best (no pressure then). I know none of those reasons are good enough seeing as I started this when I was in the middle of taking my GCSE's and managed to update more often, but what can I say? I'M SORRY :'(**

**Reviewers (love you):**

**FiringShootingStar: Both Careers are still alive at this point (sorry was I being confusing?). I guess you're about to find out what happens next...**

**Sugarangelcookies: Oh it's like you read my mind! I certainly have plans of how to continue this although I think I'll probably publish it as a different story as the genre inevitably changes when she's out of the games. I won't spoil it but you're right I imagine her and Finnick's as friends, but did it start that why? (ohhh) I do have ideas for the victory tour and what happens when she mentors and what happens to her family etc. I think it might be why I've been getting stuck on this story is because my brain keeps jumping ahead thinking about afterwards instead.**

**Sorceress Of The Fake: Welcome! Thank you, it's difficult to try and portray a character before they develop to be the character we know believably and it means a lot you think I did at least an okay job at that. Whe you say 'Friends with Ends' is that like that's a user name it's also from? Or am I being stupid...**

**Firie: Welcome! (unless you're already a reader who just hasn't reviewed before...in which case welcome back!) Good I'm glad people got that I was having a hard time like writing it in a way that you get the fact it's a trap without Johanna suddenly becoming an electrical wizard even though she's not. Thanks!**

**MusicForever15: Sorry sorry I know I already I said it but I hate me too! 11 is still reasonably late, I often try and stay up so I can publish a chapter in the American evening and get more hits (sneaky of me I know) but I give up at around eleven and go to sleep. You say such lovely things, extra internet hugs for you! **

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Johanna had heard many sounds in her time in the arena; the screams of dying children; fresh blood splattering sand; the sizzling of burning flesh; but heavy water droplets falling on the ground were unheard of. Maybe that's why when she woke with a start the next morning, the raindrops falling on the small patch of cave floor open to the elements sounded so ominous. If you listen too long the high-pitched splat of falling water morphed into eerie moans. Johanna poked her head out of the cave only to be soaked in seconds by dusty rain that tasted like thunder. The skies had transformed from the customary electric blue to a brooding purple the colour of fresh bruises. Despite the fact it must have been morning, the yellowy half light that lit the arena at the moment seemed more suited to dusk. The sky rolled with some invisible power and thunder exploded like a million death cannons. This could be no random occurrence; this was the prequel to something important. Johanna could taste the energy in the air and feel the anticipation of all of Panem looking on as the beginning of the end began.

As the first flashes of lightening scarred the sky Johanna quickly dropped back into the cave; she wouldn't put it past the Capitol to target that lightning at any unfortunate tribute left out in the open. Something told her this was the final morning she'd spend in the arena. This was it, final violent day in the arena to be hacked through. The final lives to be stolen before the blood soaked victor emerged. They usually saved the most devastating weapons and the most terrifying mutts for the finale. The storm is just the start. The wind howled and whistled with terrifying power against the walls of the cave as Johanna shivered involuntarily. What had once seemed like a safe haven in a deadly arena was so battered by wind she wondered it didn't fold, leaving her buried in stone. Johanna sat in the cave listening to the wind howling like some deranged beast screaming its despair into the storm for a while. It could have been minutes or hours or days; trapped in the cave by the storm Johanna lost all sense of time.

The noise of the storm changing slightly was the only marker of time. The deranged howling beast seemed to separate into a whole pack of animals driven by the hunt. Maybe it was her ears playing tricks on her, but individual squawks and an odd flapping seemed to be separating themselves from the mass. Johanna hauled her stiff limbs out of the cave to get a better understanding of what was going on. A feeling of dread in the pit of stomach told her it wouldn't be good. She was soaked through in seconds as the vicious rain slapped into her face and plastered her hair to her cheeks in seconds. Squinting around the landscape rippling with wind, nervously clutching the slippery handle of her axe, everything seemed to be a monster making it was hard to find the real danger. But as a lightning bolt took a snapshot of the wild landscape, the sky was thrown into sharp relief. There was something in the storm. Huge flapping shadows were squawking high overhead. Sharp talons and lethal beaks were lit up by lightening as the birds the size of small children started to descend.

Run. A blood freezing hunting cry split the air. Johanna stumbled down the hill trying to put some distance between her and the flapping beasts over head. It was like the sandstorm all over again as she forced her feet to move faster than the wind howling in her ears. Only this time she couldn't have any hope of outrunning what was coming. It was like every time she'd thought she'd seen the worst of the arena they introduced some new horror that trumped the last. Scrambling down the scree that constantly made her loose her footing, Johanna tried wildly to concoct some sort of plan. When the danger was from above, there was surely nowhere safe to run to? But it wasn't like the birds were going to wait to attack until she found a strategic position anyway. By the time she had was halfway down the slope she felt the first talons ripping into her shoulders.

White-hot pain was all she could think about for a second as the talons stronger than metal ripped into the flesh of her shoulders spurting blood onto her cheeks but as the unnaturally strong bird threatened to lift her off the ground instinct kicked in. With both hands, she smashed her axe backwards over her head to where the birds skull must have been. A screech from the bird that hurt Johanna's ears and the loosening of the claws on her shoulder told her she had hit the mark. Johanna turned to confront the winged monster, smashing into the dark feathers again and dodging the evil talons and beak. It's red eyes glowed creepily as it only seemed angered by her attack. But even in the few minutes of holding her position, the sky grew darker with feathers as the birds surrounded her. It seemed standing still was not an option. Johanna edged her way down the slope having to fight a new assailant every few steps. The more fell at her axe the more replaced them. Occasionally, she wouldn't be fast enough and her flesh was ripped a new by unforgiving talons or beaks.

A particularly vivid flash of lightening lit the sky and a zapping sound as if it had found a target made Johanna glance up the slope, whilst still fending of the unrelenting birds. The Cornucopia was glowing and sparking with energy and Johanna thought she saw a dark figure throw itself out of the glowing entrance. Her heart started to beat even faster if that was even possible, as she found a renewed sense of urgency. Smashing her elbow into a birds skull and running through the temporary gap she reached the bottom of the slope. The Capitols ultimate plan must be to have the finalists confront each other of course; but Johanna would rather delay that for as long as possible. Dashing across the beginning of the open plain the air in front of her was relatively free from birds for a few minutes; maybe another tribute out in the open was distracting them. The loss of immediate danger allowed Johanna to feel the searing pain properly where her flesh had been sliced by the lethal birds. She held one hand to her shoulder as she ran to stem the flow of blood for a short while, but her fingers were soon slippery with blood. The feeling of her broken flesh under her fingers and the warm liquid pooling there was enough to make her feel dizzy with sickness.

But before she could even think further about her wounds, she was inexplicably yanked up into the air by her backpack. The creature's flapping wings were pounding air into her ears as she dangled helplessly in mid air, flailing wildly with her axe at the bird out of her reach. The wet grass beneath her was getting further and further away and soon another bird appeared in front of her. It's sharp beak slashed across the exposed flesh of her sternum and Johanna's scream was lost in the storm. There was only one way out. Down. Johanna wriggled painfully out of the straps of the pack that she had once killed to get and now might kill her. Her axe got caught and it took a few moments of hanging by her hands before she managed to free herself to drop into dizzying space. Rain slapped her in the face and air whistled in her ears. Then she met solid ground with a sickening thud. The jarring impact of her feet hitting the ground was worse than she expected and the whole landscape seem to waver slightly as Johanna tried to regain her balance. But before she was even steady on her feet a heavy fist met her skull.

Johanna's arms wheeled blindly and little coloured lights obscured the face of her attacker as she stumbled backwards. Another fist pounded into her stomach with a thwack and she doubled over, the breath knocked out of her. Johanna glared up at Beau who looked a little pale and had fresh cuts on his face from the birds, but otherwise seemed frustratingly alive. He was also holding his knife, but apparently stabbing her would be too painless. He would make her suffer first.

"How are you even alive?" Johanna gasped out as she regained her breath.

"Sponsors." He shrugged nonchalantly as he raised his fist again. "What did you think because you got that one gift you're their favourite now? Well I hate to disappoint you, but everyone loves a Career."

His arrogant smile leached any remaining strength Johanna had. This is the way it was supposed to be. She would die and he, the Career, would be victorious. Another heavy blow pounded into her from her left side. The pain knocked some sense into her. The only way she'd forced herself to survive this long was on the hope that she would return a victor. If she died now then all she would be was a murderer. If she died now, what was the point in it all? Johanna lifted her axe with shaking hands and a new determination and took a heavy swipe at Beau. He dodged but the quickness of his strike had thrown him and the smile had slid from his face. Maybe he was more affected by his injuries than he cared to admit because he was barely managing to dodge Johanna's steady stream of strikes in time.

As they fought, the birds had backed off; she could still hear them but apparently watching tributes kill each other is better viewing than allowing their mutts to do it. Johanna was just raising her axe to strike again as they circled each other when a look of triumph crossed Beau's face. She dared to glance briefly over her shoulder to see Titane charging towards them a look of set determination on her face. Johanna stood frozen, caught between the two Careers. Beau seemed certain Titane would side with him at least temporarily to kill Johanna, Johanna wasn't so sure. Despite the screeching birds, roaring wind and thunder in Johanna's mind there was silence as she watched Titane raise her knife. Then it was buried in Beau's neck.

Beau fell to his knee's gasping as blood poured from the fatal wound a look of pure disbelief in his eyes. Then Titane was throwing Johanna to the ground with such force her head slammed back and an odd ringing filled her ears. Johanna turned her head in the grass to find her axe and watched Titane whisper to her former ally 'you don't even deserve second place', before she ripped the knife out of his neck and the cannon boomed.

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**Hope that was worth the wait and review to guilt me into updating quicker :)**


	15. The Arena: the Finale

**You may have noticed I changed the cover picture for this to one of Jena Malone when she was younger since she's been cast as Johanna Mason. I couldn't find one of her blonde but it will do. Also I'm changing the name of this story (I know I've already done it twice) because the current names boring and I have a better one. This is possibly the final chapter :'(**

**Reviewers:**

**Sorceress Of The Fake: Thank you, I never know how to reply to compliments accept...thanks again.**

**FiringShootingStar: yeah it's pretty ruthless but Titane never really liked any of her fellow Careers. And Beau was a particularly large douche. So she probably hated him more because she had to put up with him is an ally.**

**Sugarangelcookies: Yeah, I don't think it would be the Hunger Games without some terrifying mutts. Thanks, you were my first ever story alert person so internet hugs for that :3**

**Mads515: Good it was stressful hoping it would live up to the 'chapter 14' status :P**

**MusicForever15: Gawd I've made you wait so long I hate myself, every time I cba to write I looked at this review and it made me write. Thank you being lovely like usual about this story, I'm blushing. 3**

There was no pause. As the last echoes of Beau's cannon sounded in the arena Titane had already turned to her next victim. Johanna found the handle of the axe and was on her feet in one smooth movement as some deep founded survival instinct stopped her from curling up into a ball on the wet earth and giving up hope. It would have been easy to do, confronted with the Career a head taller than Johanna and twice as wide with a knife in her hand dripping the blood of her former ally onto the earth and a look of furious determination on her face. But maybe Johanna's face had the same expression, because she raised her axe to make her final stand with a reckless confidence. Either way she was going home today, she might as well give her all.

Titane made the first move. The knife still bleeding in her hand was slashed at Johanna's neck but it sliced air only as Johanna quickly dodged to the side. She used the opportunity to strike out with her heavy weapon at the unprotected side of Titane's muscular body. But an inhumanely strong hand grabbed the axe mid air and with a grunt; Titane pushed the axe out of the way with one strong wrist. They circled each other again, starting slightly when the other so much as twitched; it seemed neither opponent was letting anything pass unnoticed. Then Titane started attacking in a constant series of blows that each time Johanna only just avoided. Defence was the only option as she darted out of the way of moves that must have been practiced for years and a stamina that was almost robotic.

"Give up Johanna." Titane's words weren't harsh, more pitying. The people of Panem probably couldn't even hear them over the storm; they were not part of some performance, but just for Johanna.

"Never." Johanna gasped out between the rapid breathes that kept her tied muscles moving.

"Fine." Murmured Titane before raising her voice as she continued to attack. "You've changed a lot since training. A lot less tears."

"Shut up." Johanna spat, she had no idea where Titane was going by bringing up her old act but talking was distracting. Even as she thought that, she didn't dodge fast enough and Titane's knife cut slightly into her shoulder. It was minor, but Titane pressed her advantage.

"So if you're not that little girl anymore, that is if you ever were, then who are you? A murderer like me?"

The words cut something deeper than a knife could and Johanna saw red. She lashed out wildly at the girl in front of her, to stop the words that spoke aloud the worst things she was thinking about herself. The axe missed by quite a distance and left her vulnerable to a heavy blow into her rib cage by Titane's fist.

"I'm not!" The automatic denial was out before Johanna could curse herself for engaging in the dangerous conversation.

"Oh. Did the axe do it all by itself did it?" The patronising voice made the voice that finished even colder. "You're a child killer. Face it. You may as well accept who you are before you die."

"I'm not, I'm not! I just had to. I have to." Johanna screamed over the storm, repeating the words like a mantra, like she was trying to convince herself.

"You are what you pretend to be."

"No. No!" Her anger was making her slip up, Titane was getting past her more and more and if she didn't do something soon, she would be dead.

"What would your family say now? Johanna, the killer."

The words should have been the final blow. They were the words that make you not want to go on trying, or at least give up long enough to get a knife stuck between you're ribs. But they had a very different effect on Johanna. She didn't waste time or energy explaining out loud why she knew her family didn't care if she was a killer. The most important member of her family had already told her she should kill to get home. She didn't give Titane or the Capitol the satisfaction of an explanation, the most important people would already understand. She just struck.

Maybe Titane was unprepared for her to fight back and not crumble, maybe she was finally tiring, but all Johanna knew was that when she raised the axe with both hands and aimed at the other girl's torso it found its mark. It was a little too high to mutilate the vulnerable flesh of her stomach but a gaping wound had been opened and a sickening crack echoing in the air told her she'd broken the other girls rib. Emotion flickered on Titane's face for the first time as her unseeing eyes were clouded by pain. Johanna didn't give her time to react offensively before she aimed a kick at her already bleeding and damaged torso and heard a crunch of bone as Titane fell backwards like a fallen giant. Johanna stepped forward with her axe raise to finish it, breathing heavily, but it wouldn't be that easy.

Titane reached forward to grab both of Johanna's feet and slam her painfully to the ground with her. Titane was holding her bleeding torso with one hand but in the other was her knife. Johanna rolled out of her reach just in time so the knife stabbed into soft earth where her head had just been. The world was still spinning in a haze of muddy brown and grey as Johanna scrambled to her feet once again, keeping a safe distance from the girl writhing with pain on the grass. A pool of blood was starting to form around Titane but the knife was still caught in her large fist.

Johanna didn't dare approach the girl who had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Instead, she grabbed a throwing axe from her belt and took careful aim. Her target may be close but she was squirming on the ground, so when Johanna's axe flew through the air it buried itself in the girls shoulder and not her neck. As Johanna cursed herself and aimed her other throwing axe as Titane did something that she would have thought beyond anyone to do. She ripped the axe from her own shoulder with a guttural yell and as blood spurted out onto her cheek, she threw the axe with her good arm straight at Johanna.

Johanna's own axe buried itself in her leg before dropping to the ground, ripping her flesh as it fell, causing her to scream with pain as warm blood ran down her leg and she almost fell as it gave way. That was it. Johanna threw herself on top of Titane but was thrown of like a fly on some wild animal. Instead of attempting to regain her place Johanna grabbed the wrist that was dangerously waving about the knife with hers. Johanna raised her axe to cut off the squirming hand beneath hers, she knew better than to try and wrestle the knife away from her. Titane was screaming with pain as the knife rolled away from then in to the grass along with her fingers, still gripping the knife but useless to her now. Johanna let the bloody and maimed wrist loose and used the other girls distraction to get one hand on her neck forcing her head backwards so she could make the final blow. In the few seconds it took her to raise her weapon Johanna had the time to look into the face of her victim. Up until this point all she'd noticed about the other girls appearance was her huge muscles and larger stature but she had never really taken the time to look at the girls face. It was mannish and distorted by pain and wounds but what would stay with Johanna were the eyes. They were accusing and full of anger but they were a bright blue that was almost innocent. Then Johanna's axe cut through her neck and the eyes rolled back into her skull as the final cannon boomed.

Johanna pulled herself off the body and stood up with difficulty, keeping her weight on her good leg. Panting and sick she couldn't avoid looking at the body of the girl in front of her, the head almost detached and the huge amount of blood. She turned upwards to distract herself, as she watched, the rain stopped like a button had been pressed and the storm cleared. In its place was a blue sky that was completely unfitting to the situation. Johanna would have preferred it to keep raining and raining until she dissolved into the grass. She didn't feel like a winner.

**IT'S OVER. Or is it? No really it isn't over; I'm just messing with you. I will be continuing this for sure but I will almost certainly be publishing it as a new story as it will be a different feeling to a story about the games. **

**Still to come is some possible romance for Johanna (I know I said I wouldn't but oh well...), how she copes in the aftermath of the games, the victory tour, meeting Finnick (and maybe Annie), mentoring and how she loses everyone she loves. I might publish one more chapter of Caesar's post games interview but that may turn out to be the first chapter of the next story. So author alert me if you haven't already. But I will also publish a new chapter of this when the new story is ready to let you know it's started. Thank you all so much for reviewing and everything, much love x**

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**Sadly since I wrote that I have had a huge block and general lack of motivation for this story. I'm not saying I will never write a sequel to this, but I don't want to make promises I can't keep anytime soon. Thank you for being awesome and supportive on my first ever fanfic, but for now I'm labelling this as complete. You can find my other story which is still going and a link to a collabaration I am part of on my profile. So sorry, I hope to continue this one day but not now.  
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